10 Iconic Actors Who Almost Played Batman Villians

10. Patrick Stewart As Mr Freeze - Batman & Robin

Batman: TAS reinvented the character of Mr Freeze, giving him a heartbreaking backstory that still produces manly tears to this day (*sniff*). When Freeze was selected to be the villain of Batman & Robin it only made sense for the studio to reuse this acclaimed story.

Mr Freeze in the animated series is a repressed, almost robotic figure, so initially the production was looking at Patrick Stewart to play the character. This makes sense; he’s totally bald, he’s an awesome actor and he’d bring a real sense of gravitas to the movie. Of course, the movie was essentially designed to be a feature length toy ad, so the studio was ultimately looking for a star name to front it.

They leaned towards Arnold Schwarzenegger instead and greatly increased the amount of ice-based puns. It’s hard to imagine a classy thespian like Stewart fitting into the neon nightmare of Batman & Robin, so it’s probably a bullet dodged for all concerned.