Before he was eventually cast as Superman in January 2011, the relatively unknown Henry Cavill was quickly gaining an unwanted reputation as one of the unluckiest actors in Hollywood. Not only was he originally set to play the Man of Steel as early as 2004 before McG’s proposed reboot fell apart and was resurrected as Superman Returns, but he was also one of the final two candidates to play James Bond in Casino Royale before the studio decided to go with Daniel Craig.
If that wasn’t enough, he then found himself thwarted by Robert Pattinson twice after unsuccessfully auditioning for the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and then missing out on Twilight despite being author Stephanie Meyer’s first choice for Edward Cullen. This streak of bad luck has even extended to his tenure as Krypton’s favorite son, with Cavill following up his headlining turn in Man of Steel with just two more supporting appearances in the DCEU, which isn’t exactly a great return for someone who’s been signed up for almost a decade.
And although he never made it as far as securing an audition, Cavill was also reportedly on the shortlist of actors in the running to play the title character in Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, a role that’s ironically now being filled by Robert Pattinson. Recently, though, Instagram user MAT created some fan art to show us how The Witcher star would look as Nolan’s Batman, and you can check it out below.
Cavill may have agreed to a deal to extend his tenure as Superman in the DCEU, but it isn’t said to involve any solo movies, while there’ve also been rumors that the Big Blue Boy Scout could be the subject of a Joker-esque spinoff outside of the shared universe’s continuity. After losing out on Batman, James Bond, Harry Potter and Twilight though, surely the 37 year-old deserves the chance to show what he can do when he actually gets the opportunity to head up a multi-billion dollar franchise of his own and hopefully, that chance will soon come.
