Iconic Movie Roles Almost Cast to Different Actors: The Audition Stories

Casting decisions serve a pivotal role in the chances of a film succeeding. Many characters end up nearly indistinguishable from the actors who portray them, with some performers turning out a match made in heaven, and delivering unforgettable showcases of movie magic.

Despite many of these audition decisions being different seems unimaginable for fans now, behind the scenes at certain points it was looking like a whole different scenario, no pun intended. Learn below about a few surprising stories of the iconic movie roles that were almost portrayed by other actors.

Sebastian Stan also auditioned for the Captain America role, but Marvel Studios casting directors offered him a different one, as Bucky Barnes. Stan accepted, and it has ended up being one of the longest-running roles in the franchise, with him next preparing to lead the Thunderbolts team in the eponymous movie in 2025.

Another actor who auditioned for the main role in Captain America: The First Avenger but later ended up being a MCU star as a different character was Chris Pratt. He did not succeed in this audition but it helped him ultimately get cast as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy.

Amongst the other candidates in the casting calls for the Captain America role were Alexander Skarsgård, Scott Eastwood, Ryan Phillippe, and other well-known names.

So who ultimately came on top? Of course, it was Chris Evans who was widely praised for the portrayal of Captain America and played the character in a total of 11 movies within the franchise, becoming one of the main reasons for how the MCU managed to take the cinema world by storm.

On July 9, 2023, to huge fanfare, and concurring the release with Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer for the highly anticipated double-header phenomenon known as "Barbenheimer", was the premiere date of Barbie. Based on the Barbie dolls by Mattel, the titular role was flawlessly portrayed for the first time in live-action by Margot Robbie.

While now it might be hard to imagine someone else fitting into those pink shoes, the movie actually was first announced back in 2009. And the casting choice to play the title character was the comedian Amy Schumer.

As the plans for the movie were developing, Schumer and Sony Pictures had creative differences, leading to the actress departing from the role. The next in line to get cast in the role of the iconic doll was Anna Hathaway.

After nearly a decade in development, in October 2018 the rights for the movie transferred to Warner Bros. Pictures who cast Gal Gadot for the titular role. It once again did not work out, as she had scheduling conflicts.

Finally, in 2019, Robbie was cast as Barbie, and the rest is history.

As the decade of the 1970s was just up and running, George Lucas started to contemplate a science fiction story set in space, and involving some sort of wars. In 1973, the filmmaker started to write the screenplay for what became Star Wars.

The movie script received numerous rewrites, before ultimately taking production through 1975 and 1976. In between that, the casting calls took place, with Lucas prioritizing up-and-coming actors to fill most of the main roles in his epic.

If you have applied for casting calls, which conveniently nowadays can be done through online platforms like AllCasting, you might be familiar with who the readers at auditions are. Before the days of online casting websites, it was the task of one Harrison Ford, who was hired to read with other actors auditioning for the main roles of the project.

Ford appeared in Lucas' previous film, American Graffiti, which made the director hesitant about considering casting him for this movie as well. He did the job as a casting reader so well that he even managed to develop chemistry with the auditioning actors, resulting in him becoming a candidate for the role of the charismatic space smuggler, Han Solo.

Amongst the reportedly over 2,500 casting competitors for the role of Han Solo were other future Hollywood legends, including Christopher Walken, Kurt Russell, James Caan, Bill Murray, Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte, Sylvester Stallone, and others. At a certain point, the role was even offered to young star actors like Al Pacino and Burt Reynolds, both of whom turned it down.

During the auditions and screen tests, Ford continued to stand out and proved to be able to bring depth to the key character. It left a lasting impression on Lucas who made the final call to cast him for the role which ended up being one for the ages.

The American actor, to much fanfare, was back to portray Han Solo in the both original Star Wars trilogy sequels, as well in 2015 as returning to the role for one final time more than 32 years later.