Having gotten to the final two for James Bond in Casino Royale before losing out, unsuccessfully screen-testing for the canned Superman: Flyby, missed out on Zack Snyder’s 300 after pinning his hopes on 007, dropped out of The Witcher at the height of its popularity and then embarrassingly announced his full-time return as Superman before exiting with his tail between his legs, Henry Cavill had cultivated a hard-earned reputation as arguable Hollywood’s unluckiest star.
However, it turns out that the DCU’s deposed Man of Steel has got absolutely nothing on Nicholas Hoult, with the Renfield star revealing to The Guardian that he suffered the ignominy of missing out on three blockbuster franchises in quick succession, one of which even required a phonecall direct from Tom Cruise.
“I screen-tested for Batman and didn’t get it. Screen-tested for Top Gun, didn’t get it. Then I got the call from Tom Cruise: ‘Hey, how about Mission Impossible?’ Ok. Got it. Then I had to drop out because I was already attached to do some more of The Great.”
In an alternate universe, then, we could have seen Hoult instead of Robert Pattinson as the lead of The Batman, while the Maverick role would have presumably been either Rooster or Hangman, before he’d join Cruise on one of the most consistently acclaimed IPs in the entire industry. On the plus side, getting to work opposite Nicolas Cage as Dracula is a solid substitute, even if so many high-profile rejections in such quick succession would definitely do a number on your confidence.
