10 Actors Almost Cast As Batman (Who Would Have Sucked Way More Than Affleck)

4. Ashton Kutcher

Dude, where's my Batmobile?!

Along with Angel star David Boreanaz, Two And A Half Men star Kutcher was considered before Christian Bale was cast for Nolan's take on the property. Now, Boreanaz might have been a reasonable choice - his association with Buffy might have been slightly distracting (though big franchise cross-over casting clearly hasn't worried comic book movie makers as much as you might think) but he has the right feel for the role - but Kutcher would have been like a fish on a bicycle, or a horse in space. Lost, confused and mildly offensive.

Why It Would Have Sucked

It may seem cruel to reduce an actor's catalogue to one film, but like Keanu Reeves, Kutcher is very obviously still trading on the role that made him most famous. Aside from very slight flashes in The Butterfly Effect, Kutcher invariably plays slightly tweaked versions of his Dude, Where's My Car character (as does co-star Sean William Scott, incidentally) and it's precisely because that casting was so nailed on. It wasn't that Kutcher was able to convincingly pretend to be that character, it feels more and more like he just naturally fitted into the film with minimal effort - just as Reeves did for Bill & Ted.

Nothing in the past ten or so years has suggested that Kutcher has the acting chops to pull off something as big as Batman, or that his slightly gawky, stoner-role-friendly presence could be smoothed out sufficiently to make him a watchable Bruce Wayne.