15 Near Miss Villain Castings That Would Suck More Than Eisenberg's Luthor

6. Leonardo DiCaprio - Colonel Hans Landa (Inglourious Basterds)

Those who followed the pre-production stages of Quentin Tarantino's outrageous war pic Inglourious Basterds will be well aware that Leonardo DiCaprio was originally slated to play Colonel Hans Landa, the vicious and savagely intelligent Nazi who serves as the movie's main antagonist (aside, of course, from Hitler). The idea of Leo teaming up with Tarantino was certainly an exciting one, one that's difficult to see in retrospect however, given how well-suited Christoph Waltz ended up being to the role, after Tarantino decided that he wanted to hire a regional actor for the part. It's difficult to imagine even an actor of DiCaprio's caliber pulling off a German accent without sending audiences into cringe comas. Also, there are countless other issues: Leo is too handsome (not to say that Waltz isn't), and would audiences really be able to separate Leo from a Nazi? In essence, Leo would become bigger than the movie, so I'm glad he instead landed the Calvin Candie role in Inglourious Basterds, which stands tall as one of his very best performances.