10 Roles You Didn't Know Robin Williams Almost Played

6. The Genie - Aladdin: The Return Of Jafar

Robin Williams had voiced the Genie in Disney€™s Aladdin to considerable critical and commercial success in 1992. The film would go on to become that year€™s biggest hit, raking in well over $700 million in cinemas worldwide, and win several awards for its soundtrack. Williams would make Aladdin for scale, as a thank you for the studio taking a chance on him in his breakout success, Good Morning Vietnam. This decision rested, however, on a gentleman€™s agreement that his name and image would not be used to market the movie, as his own movie Toys was due for release only a few weeks later. Williams felt that his role was a supporting one and that two €˜Robin Williams movies€™ being released around Christmas would have his audience hitting saturation point. Disney would back out of the deal in order to maximise the publicity on their own movie, and Williams €“ incredibly aggrieved €“ vowed never to work for them again. Toys would be a disaster, barely making half of its budget back, while Aladdin€™s straight to video sequel would be made using Dan €˜Homer Simpson€™ Castellaneta. Disney would, upon a change of management, issue a public apology to Williams and bury the hatchet sufficiently that he would return to play the Genie one more time with the third Aladdin movie, replacing Castellaneta€™s contribution, who had already completed voice work on the film by that point.