10 Iconic Actors Who Almost Played Batman Villians
2. Nicolas Cage As The Scarecrow - Batman Unchained
The Batman series was pretty much DOA after Batman & Robin, and it needed a long rest afterwards so the fanbase could cope with the trauma. Incredibly Warner Bros. was happy with the dailies for it and developed a potential fifth Batman movie while it was being shot.
The plan was to return somewhat to the darkness of the Burton era, with Harley Quinn and Scarecrow teaming up to drive Batman insane. During one big hallucination scene, Batman would have imagined himself on trial by his old enemies, including De Vito’s Penguin, Carrey’s Riddler and Nicholson’s Joker.
Director Joel Schumacher went to visit Nicolas Cage – a well-known comic nerd – on the set of Face/Off to offer him the Scarecrow role, and presumably, if the film had been greenlit Cage would have accepted. Cage can be funny and terrifying in equal measure, so imagining what he could have done with the role is mind-blowing.
So long as he didn’t have nipples on his scarecrow outfit.