Actors who turned down major roles or who were strongly considered

[Rell Lauren]

Mickey rourke turned down roles for the following films:

48 hours
Top gun
Pulp fiction
Rain man
The silence of the lambs
Platoon
Beverly Hills cop

 

[Hitman's Shades]

Marlon Wayans as Robin in Tim burtons Batman.

I had this action figure as a kid wondering why Robin had a high top. They made the design while Marlon was still attached to the movie.

 

[Cladyclad]

Marlon got paid for a role he didn’t get

that’s crazy

 

[Deltron]

Marlon got paid for a role he didn’t get

that’s crazy

not all that crazy

 

[WesCrook]

Marlon got paid for a role he didn’t get

that’s crazy

Who is this man's agent?

 

[Cladyclad]

Who is this man's agent?

I guess the studio did him a solid for going in a different direction

 

[El Poyo Loco]

Dave Chappelle turned down Bubba in Forrest Gump

 

[feelosofer]

Sam Rockwell was supposed be the Joker in The Dark Night but he ended up doing Choke.

 

[ThirdAct]

Pacino turned down a lot, the biggest being Han Solo (lol) and Apocalypse Now...also movies that went to Dustin Hoffman

Tarantino wrote Vincent Vega for Michael Madsen and he turned it down to be in Wyatt Earp instead , might be the WOAT career move

 

[WesCrook]

Dave Chappelle turned down Bubba in Forrest Gump

I probably would have unintentionally cracked up laughing watching him die in Forrest's arms

 

[Hitman's Shades]

Dave Chappelle turned down Bubba in Forrest Gump

I can kinda see this. And he did play Tom Hanks' best friend in You've Got Mail.

 

[JuvenileHell]

Will Smith turned down Neo in The Matrix

Also, if I recall correctly, Brandon Lee was also supposed to be Neo before he died

 

[Mortal1]

Jake Gyllenhaal was cast to replace Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker in Spider-man 2 due to his back injury in Seabiscuit. Tobey was able to make a recovery and come back.

Eddie Murphy turned down Eddie Valliant in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

 

[richaveli83]

I don't know if Marvel was actually going to cast him but dude who plays Jack Ryan on the Amazon show and played in The Office was supposed to be Captain America in the MCU instead of Chris Evans.

Chris O'Donnell was supposed to be Spider-Man in James Cameron's Spider-Man movie in the 90s.

Jeff Goldblum was supposed to be Scarecrow in the fifth Batman movie but due to the financial and critical failure of Batman and Robin, WB canceled the series.

 

[Lucky_Lefty]

Jeff Goldblum was supposed to be Scarecrow in the fifth Batman movie but due to the financial and critical failure of Batman and Robin, WB canceled the series.

Thank God