Comic Book Casting Missed Opportunities

[Captaindemotion]

Clint Eastwood or Kurt Russell for the original Nick Fury (Jackson is pretty much perfect for the current version, so what the hey);

Eastwood (again) for Judge Dredd (though he was arguably too old by the time the character was created, certainly by the time of the movie);

Michael Biehn, Bruce Campbell or Mel Gibson (with camera tricks to make him look taller) for Batman in 1989;

Sean Penn for Wolverine (I'm pretty happy with Jackman all the same);

Telly Savalas for Lex Luthor 1978 (I really like his Blofeld in OHMSS);

Jeff Bridges for Lex Luthor 2006 (I think his Obadiah Stone was a better version than Kevin Spacey's!);

Timothy Dalton for Iron Man, had they made it 20 years ago (but he wouldn't have been as much fun as RDJ);

Edward Furlong for Robin (would have been much more age appropriate and generally convincing than Chris O'Donnell)

Mark Dacascos as the Sub-Mariner;

Courtney Cox or Charisma Carpenter as Lois Lane (is it because they have alliterative names? Hmmm);
The red-haired one from That 70s Show for Mary Jane in Spider-man;

Dennis Quaid for GL;

Jon Hamm for Superman (assuming it IS too late ...);

Stallone for The Punisher (a better fit for Castle than Dredd);

David Boreanaz for Batman (would've been my second choice after Bale, so I can't really complain);

Nathan Fillion for GL;

Alexis Denisof for Mr Fantastic;

Tim Curry or Willen Dafoe as The Joker (1989), Chris Eccleston in 2008 (again, Ledger would've been hard to top and Defoe not playing him in 1989 meant we got a great Green Goblin).

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Clint Eastwood or Kurt Russell for the original Nick Fury (Jackson is pretty much perfect for the current version, so what the hey);

The current version IS Samuel L. Jackson so he was certainly well cast.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Billy Zane can still do Lex Luthor. I hope he plays the part someday.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Now I'm trying to think who could've played opposite Johnson in a putative '60s FF series. I find myself thinking of Mariette Hartley as Sue. Maybe a young Robert Redford as Johnny; he was still largely a TV actor at the time, I think. And the Thing would've been Ted Cassidy (who did the character's voice in animation later on). How about John Colicos as Dr. Doom?

Wonderful! Although personally I would have rather seen Elizabeth Montgomery or even Teri Garr as Sue Storm/Richards, but certainly would not have been sad to see Mariette Hartley in the same role.

 

[FPAlpha]

Paul D'Amato as Wolverine - This is fellow who John Byrne used as his hypothetical model when he was drawing Uncanny X-Men, and if you look at pictures of him from Slap Shot, he's pretty much a dead ringer for Logan: http://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=30709

And if you look at him today, he looks eerily like the "Days of Future Past" era Logan:
http://www.myspace.com/pauldrhookdamato

Woah.. he would make a great "realistic" Wolverine.. kind of if Nolan would have made his version of Wolverine. I would have liked to see that.. Hugh Jackman is an awesome actor but i always felt him a bit too "sexy" to play such a down low brawler like Wolverine.

Josh Holloway really should have been Gambit. How did they mess that one up?

One of the great missed opportunities but then even he couldn't have saved the train wreck that was Wolverine: Origins.

 

[Christopher]

Tim Curry or Willen Dafoe as The Joker (1989)....

Tim Curry actually was cast as the voice of the Joker at the start of Batman: The Animated Series, and I think he recorded a couple of episodes, but then the producers decided to go a different route and cast Mark Hamill instead, having him redo the material Curry had done (though oddly they didn't do the same when they replaced Clive Revill with Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. for Alfred).

 

[Admiral_Young]

Jackson Archer suggested to me the other day that he thought Tom Hardy could be a good Lex Luthor. After pondering it, if he was given excellent dialogue to work with I agree.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Michael Biehn, ...... for Batman in 1989;

Edward Furlong for Robin

That would be interesting choices considering the Terminator films.

David Boreanaz for Batman

Well he did kind of play him on Angel.

Tim Curry or Willen Dafoe as The Joker (1989)....

Tim Curry actually was cast as the voice of the Joker at the start of Batman: The Animated Series, and I think he recorded a couple of episodes, but then the producers decided to go a different route and cast Mark Hamill instead, having him redo the material Curry had done

I've heard that the reason for that was the guys running the show were worried he would scare the s@#t out of the kids watching TAS.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^ Hah, you know, I never actually thought about the fact that Biehn and Furlong were father and son in the Terminator movies. Must have been Freudian. I wonder if they had been Batman and Robin would Arnie still have played Mr Freeze?!

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Clint Eastwood or Kurt Russell for the original Nick Fury (Jackson is pretty much perfect for the current version, so what the hey);

The current version IS Samuel L. Jackson so he was certainly well cast.

Only in the Ultimates universe. The regular MU version is the same caucasian guy he's always been.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Paul D'Amato as Wolverine - This is fellow who John Byrne used as his hypothetical model when he was drawing Uncanny X-Men, and if you look at pictures of him from Slap Shot, he's pretty much a dead ringer for Logan: http://www.aveleyman.com/ActorCredit.aspx?ActorID=30709

And if you look at him today, he looks eerily like the "Days of Future Past" era Logan:
http://www.myspace.com/pauldrhookdamato

Woah.. he would make a great "realistic" Wolverine.. kind of if Nolan would have made his version of Wolverine. I would have liked to see that.. Hugh Jackman is an awesome actor but i always felt him a bit too "sexy" to play such a down low brawler like Wolverine.

Yeah, I was pretty blown away when I first looked at those pictures. He's got the same "crazy eyes" that Byrne used to give Logan.

And Bryne has said that he didn't like Jackman in the part because he seemed too much like a pissed-off pretty boy. I though Jackman did a nice job in the part, but I can definitely see where Byrne is coming from.

Just thought of another X-Men casting I wish had happened back in the day: Angela Bassett as Storm. I'm still mad they cast Halle Berry.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Fred Savage as Richie Rich.

 

[the Dagman]

I'm shocked that Warner Bros. didn't get their act together and cast Lucy Lawless to play Wonder Woman during one of her Xena hiatuses.

I remember her being asked about this on Howard Stern when Xena was still on. She wasn't really interested in it at the time because she thought it would dilute the Xena franchise. She probably had a point. Besides, most actors want to do something different during their hiatus. How different would Wonder Woman have been from Xena at that point? Heck, they even both have a Greek mythology connection!

But I agree that she would've made a great Wonder Woman. It's so weird that the 90s offered so many actresses who would have been great for the part, but today I'm hard pressed to think of any who would fit the bill.

Try Sarah Lancaster from Chuck for a currently viable actress to carry the role. She looks like she could be Lynda Carter's daughter. So I think Sarah should play Diana and bring back Lynda to play her mother Queen Hippolyta.

 

[Icemizer]

Paul Wight(The Big Show, WWE wrestler) as the Juggernaut. Vinny Jones just didnt have the size and bulk for the role. But putting this giant of a man in the same style of armor would have been awesome.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

Peter O’Toole as The Joker

Kyle Mclaughlin as Cyclops (X-Men)

Iman as Storm (X-Men)

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Mark Dacascos as the Sub-Mariner

He has the right looks. Him or Wentworth Miller (assuming he hits the gym).

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I believe Ozymandias and The Comedian of Watchmen were modeled after Michael York and G. Gorden Liddy respectively. (Though I suppose the only way to have cast them would have been to make a movie soon after or simultaneously with the comic.)

 

[TIN_MAN]

Back in the day, Angie Harmon would have been a great Wonder Woman, granted she's abit slender for the role, but her face and voice would have been perfect IMHO.