12 Actors Who Stupidly Turned Down Comic Book Movies

2. Leonardo DiCaprio Turned Down Spider-Man

Despite being comically over-talented, DiCaprio is very much one of Hollywood's nearly men: or at least he is if you qualify worth in terms of the Academy's acknowledgement alone. And that is very much also the case with some of the roles he's been hotly linked to or flatly turned down, as it was when Sony came knocking with Spider-Man. The studio apparently offered him the role of Peter Parker, but DiCaprio passed because he didn't feel like he was up to the requirements of the role. Great responsibility and all that...

"That was another one of those situations, similar to Robin, where I didn't feel ready to put on that suit yet."

One he probably won't have regretted was the missing out on the chance to play Batman's sidekick Robin for Joel Schumacher. The director apparently went after him hard, but DiCaprio wasn't interested: "I had a meeting with Joel Schumacher. It was just one meeting, and, no, I didn't end up doing it." Whether he turned it down or not is unconfirmed but he did subsequently admit that "I don't think I was ready for anything like that." Meanwhile, Chris O'Donnell basically saw his career ruined when he was chosen for the role. Nice dodge.