It's here and its a hit. Guardians Of The Galaxy, a property previously unknown to even comic book fans, has become the latest in a long line of films from Marvel Studios that have gained both critical and audience adoration. When it was announced at Comic Con two years ago the world was skeptical. Now we know we were stupid to doubt them; director James Gunn and his team have taken a D-List comic book and turned out an A-List movie that exudes confidence. A key part of the success is the casting of the titular heroes. The Avengers had five films to prepare us for the team-up; Guardians has to go in all guns blazing. That's five characters, totally new to mainstream audiences, who we all need to immediately fall on side with. Thankfully the cast delivers; Chris Pratt continues his transformation from indie name to big star with a all-in performance, Dave Bautista proves to everyone he can actually, Zoe Saldana shows us she gives an even better performance in green skin than she does blue, Bradley Cooper turns Rocket into the star of the show and Vin Diesel is Groot. Of course, things could have turned out very differently. With so much resting on the casting of these characters plenty of other actors were considered, some of whom would have led to a very different film. We think the assembled cast is perfect, but to see how it could have gone here are twenty actors who almost ended up being the Guardians Of The Galaxy. As is to be expected, spoilers for Guardians Of The Galaxy are present, so tread carefully if you're yet to see it.
20. James Marsden
Almost was: Star Lord Already staring in one Marvel movie this year with a continuity busting cameo at the end of X-Men: Days Of Future Past, Marsden clearly has as many qualms with appearing in two superhero franchises as Chris Evans. His Cyclops was a key components of the early X-Men films, acting as a love rival to everyone's favourite Wolverine, although as the straight guy he was often left with less interesting developments. The post X-Men life (Cyclops was killed off in The Last Stand) has been mixed for the actor, with early choice roles in The Notebook and Enchanted making way for a spate of supporting roles in average films, although his Jack Lame in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was one of that film's unexpected delights. Marsden was one of a group of actors rumoured to be interested in the role of Star Lord back at the end of 2012, but nothing concrete materialised. With Scott Summers back, his blockbuster prospects are still quite high.
