Remember when Justin Bieber was linked to Robin? Yeah, that. What Happened? Ok, so Efron isn't quite the disaster that Bieber would have been, but he was a little too Disney to really pull off Superman, and too apple pie good-looking to pull off Clark Kent. But somewhat unthinkably, the role was apparently Efron's to turn down ahead of Brandon Routh's casting. And the only reason he turned the role down was because of some advice from Leonardo DiCaprio. The Examiner broke the story that DiCaprio had cast doubt on whether or not Superman was right for Efron - in the process saying what everyone else around the world other than Warner Bros. was obviously thinking. Would He Have Worked? Efron is actually not a bad actor: the reductive influence of High School Musical aside, he has put in some reasonable performances (most notably in the horribly unbalanced The Paperboy), but DiCaprio was right when he said it wasn't the right role for him. He wouldn't have sold the movie, and he wouldn't have had that intangible aura required of Superman. Meanwhile, DiCaprio might actually have been right, considering what happened to Brandon Routh, and also taking into account what has happened to Efron since. Despite not really pulling up too many trees in his performances since High School Musical, Efron's stock has soared, and recent news had him linked to Star Wars VII as well as an unnamed upcoming Marvel movie project.
