10 Iconic Movie Roles Almost Played By Totally Different Actors
1. Superman - Superman
Back when Tim Burton was still a go-to name in the superhero/comic book adaptation world, the goth director wanted to put none other than Nicolas Cage in the super-suit for Superman Lives.
Written by none other than Kevin Smith, Lives would have seen Cage don the cape and tights for a whole new take on both Superman and his alter ego Clark Kent, and would have had him, amongst other things, fighting a giant spider in the final act. Weird stuff. And definitely something most fans of comic books, fans of Burton movies, and fans of the enduring absurdity of the Cage chronology would like to have seen.
Alas, abandoned shortly before filming began, the film never made it to the big screen, and instead the studio moved towards a more traditional interpretation of the character and his world with Brandon Routh as the big blue boy scout in Bryan Singer's ill-fated Superman Returns.
Despite the project never going ahead, 2023's The Flash managed to give a nod to the performance that never was by having a CG Cage-Superman battle a 50-foot spider and its spawn in the multiverse panopticon sequence in its final act.