10 Actors Who Confirmed They Were Almost Batman
There's bad casting, and then there's THIS...
Is there a single actor in Hollywood who doesn't want to be a superhero right now?
With the huge success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - and the general climate of excellent comic-book movies we've been living in for the last two decades - there are very few downsides to strapping on a cape and pretending to beat up some bad guys.
There's just something alluring about getting the chance to define an iconic character on the big screen, and for proof that plenty of big actors are more than willing to sweat inside a rubber costume for a months-long shooting period, look no further than the list of names who've been in the running to play Batman over the years.
Seriously, some massive, massive stars have come surprisingly close to stepping inside the extremely polished shoes of billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne and his batty alter-ego, and as a result, the majority of the Batman movies we've seen over the last thirty years were almost wildly different.
It's hard to imagine anyone other than Christian Bale or Michael Keaton starring in their respective Batman movies, but those guys were never the sole options...
10. Pierce Brosnan - Batman (1989)
Before he became Bond, Pierce Brosnan had the opportunity to play another incredibly famous pop-culture icon.
During the casting process for Tim Burton's classic 1989 Batman movie, the director actually approached Brosnan to talk with him about the title role, but the actor turned the part down because he "couldn't really take it seriously".
In a 2014 Reddit AMA, Brosnan talked about why he rejected the cape and cowl, while adding that, in hindsight, he perhaps acted a little foolishly:
"I went and met with Tim Burton for the role of Batman. But I just couldn't really take it seriously, any man who wears his underpants outside his pants just cannot be taken seriously. That was my foolish take on it. But how wrong was I? Don't get me wrong, because I love Batman, and I grew up on Batman."
In the end, Michael Keaton became Burton's Batman, while Brosnan went on to star as womanising super-spy James Bond in four films between 1995 and 2002.
All things considered, he can't really be too unhappy about the Batman thing.