15 Actors Who Came This Close To Playing Iconic Movie Characters
When they invent a way to go to parallel universes, we’re visiting the one with Bowie as Gandalf.
![15 Actors Who Came This Close To Playing Iconic Movie Characters](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/3/797873_320x180.jpg)
It’s hard to imagine another actor playing Gandalf instead of the great Ian McKellen, but one name sounds like a worthy replacement: David Bowie, who was one of the first choices anyway. Here’s the full story, plus 14 others:
![David Bowie nearly played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Unfortunately for all us, and cinema in general, Bowie was just too busy for it and didn't even have the time to record an audition. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/2/797882.jpg)
![In another timeline, we saw Muhammad Ali as Superman on the big screen. Ali's name was one of those on the shortlist for the title role in the 1978 movie, according to llya Salkind, one of the movie's producers. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/1/797881.jpg)
![We almost got see Salma Hayek play Trinity in The Matrix in 1999. She lost out on the role because she just wasn't up to all the stunts there were a bunch of physical tests, and she didn't pass them CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/6/797886.jpg)
![Jake Gyllenhaal came close to replacing Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man. The studio was unhappy with how Maguire was negotiation for Spider-Man 2, and apparently talked to Gyllenhaal about replacing him. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/5/797885.jpg)
![In another universe, Gal Gadot was Furiosa in Mad Max, not Wonder Woman. It was just one of several big roles that she lost, and losses like that one made her seriously consider quitting acting altogether. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/6/797876.jpg)
![Lana Condor was almost cast instead of Kelly Marie Tran as Rose Tico. 10004 But if she'd played Rose, she never would have starred in To All the Boys I've Loved Before (which developed a strong fanbase of its own). CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/8/797878.jpg)
![We nearly got to see Joseph Fiennes play a young Obi-Wan Kenobi. The choice came down to him or Ewan McGregor, and George Lucas' daughter said about Fiennes He's weird. I don't like him, and that was that. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/7/797877.jpg)
![Billy Campbell nearly got cast as Commander Will Riker on TNG. They didn't think he could pull off playing a military leader, but they did think he'd be believable as a rogue, so they cast him as Thadiun Okona CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/4/797884.jpg)
![We nearly got to see Jared Padalecki, not Jason Momoa, as Conan the Barbarian. It came down to three finalists, and Momoa was chosen (but who knows what would have happened with Supernatural if it was Padalecki). CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/3/797883.jpg)
![Conleth Hill played Varys on Game of Thrones, but tried out for Robert Baratheon. When he left that meeting, he saw Mark Addy and thought Well, he'd be all right for it. That turned out to be spot on, and Addy got the role. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/0/797880.jpg)
![Candyman star Tony Todd nearly voiced Dormammu in Doctor Strange. He even came in and recorded all the lines, but he found out just before the movie was released that Benedict cumberbatch replaced him. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/7/797887.jpg)
Channing Tatum
![We nearly got to see Channing Tatum as Gambit in X-Men: The Last Stand. But they wrote the character out of the script. He then got cast as Gambit in Wolverine, but the scheduling just didn't work out. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/8/8/797888.jpg)
![Benedict Cumberbatch was almost Bill Compton in True Blood. Creator Alan Ball says he met with cumberbatch in London about it, but for unspecified reasons - it just didn't work out. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/9/797879.jpg)
![John Cleese nearly played King Richard in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Screenwriter Pen Densham fought the idea because it would have been totally wrong for the movie's tone. They got Sean connery instead. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/5/797875.jpg)
![Pierce Brosnan could have been the first Caped Crusader in a movie. He met with Tim Burton about playing Batman, but he just couldn't take a character who wears his underpants outside his pants seriously. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/8/7/4/797874.jpg)