Sebastian Stan flexed his might as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the MCU, but he also could have been the face of another famous sci-fi franchise before that. And no, it wasn’t as a younger Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.
Teen drama fans recognize Stan for his occasional appearances as the broody playboy Carter Baizen in Gossip Girl. However, the actor’s life changed after being cast as Steve Rogers’ best friend, Bucky, in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger. Bucky returned – albeit with a new cybernetic arm and killer attitude – as the brainwashed Winter Soldier in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and continues to be an integral and popular part of the MCU, returning for 2025’s Thunderbolts*.
As a working actor in Hollywood, it’s expected that Stan auditioned for a number of roles that he didn’t get over the years. Appearing on an episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Stan revealed he read for the part of Hal Jordan in 2011’s Green Lantern. When he saw he was up against the likes of Ryan Reynolds, Jared Leto, and Justin Timberlake, though, he realized he had no chance of getting a call back from Warner Bros. at the time. In hindsight, especially considering how pretty much everyone hates that movie – including Reynolds who secured the role – maybe that was a bullet dodged.
That said, the Green Lantern story isn’t the most fascinating tea that Stan spilled on the podcast. The actor disclosed how he almost landed the role of Captain James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot.
How close was he to heading off into the final frontier, though? Extremely. Stan said:
“Captain Kirk for J.J. Abrams was one of the first things that I got very close to. I was really close and I had a screen test with him at Paramount studios and my manager had me do a separate photoshoot where I would try and replicate all of these William Shatner pictures just to send to [J.J.] to see how much I look like him and stuff. Didn’t get it.”
The role went to Chris Pine, who portrayed the iconic captain of the USS Enterprise across three films. The movies did well, making over $1 billion at the global box office, as per The Numbers.
Stan doesn’t need to be crying into his Star Trek: The Next Generation box set, though. If he had landed the role of Captain Kirk in Star Trek, there’s the possibility it could have led to schedule clashes, preventing him from appearing in the MCU later. It’s also likely the producers might not have been inclined to cast someone as Bucky whom fans would have closely associated with such another massive franchise.
Much like Hugh Jackman will always be Wolverine in everyone’s eyes, it’s difficult to imagine anyone else but Stan as Bucky. Also, since he never got the gig in Star Trek, that means there’s still hope for him to play Luke Skywalker in a Star Wars project. C’mon, Disney and Lucasfilm, it’s what the fans want, so make it happen!