- Nicholas Hoult, X-Men: First Class, 2010. The Texan Lucas Till won the younger version of the blue, leonine, superhuman Hank McCoy/Beast created by veteran TV star Kelsey Grammer in X-Men: The Last Stand, 2005. And then Till changed his mind, not happy about the hours of required make-up involved. (He became Cyclops’ brother, Havok). Less fussy were Twilight’s Lautner, Reiley McClendon from Lousiana and Broadway’s Benjamin Walker (2011’s notoriousAbraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) – he joined the the Marvelverse as Erik Gelden opposite Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones , TV, 2015-2019.
- Jeremy Renner, The Bourne Legacy, 2011. Three was enough for Matt Damon. (Until 2015…!) The studio did not agree and kept the franchise alive by rebooting Jason Bourne as Aaron Cross – “There Was Never Just One.” But who to play him from 20 hopefuls- Erryn Arkin, Adam Brody, Dominic Cooper, Paul Dano, Luke Evans, Michael Fassbender, Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Hartnett, Garrett Hedlund, Oscar Isaac (he was made an Outcome super-agent), Taylor Kitsch, Shia LaBeouf, Kellan Lutz, Logan Marshall-Green, Alex Pettyfer, Michael Pitt and Benjamin Walker. Plus Joel Edgerton and Tobey Maguire, who were Great Gatsbying down-under. Renner, Hollywood’s new white hope since The Hurt Locker, 2009, was suggested for the Mission: Impossible.. if ever Tom Cruise retired.
- Colin Farrell, Winter’s Tale, 2013. Auteur Akiva Goldman didn’t stray far from the fantasy brigade for his reincarnation romance. Up for the Manhattan burglar falling for the heiress who dies in his arms were: Walker aka Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Luke Evans (Bard in The Hobbit), Garrett Tron Hedlund, Liam Hemsworth from Hunger Games, Tim Hiddldston (Loki in Thor) and Aaron Kick-Ass Taylor-Johnson. Long before all that, ,even Farrell had been Bullseye in Daredevil, circa 2002.
- Charlie Hunnam, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, 2015. On Warner shelves almost as long as Justice League, David Dobkins’ Arthur & Lancelot, churned into Guy Ritchie’s Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur as the first of a possible sextet (but there are no Hobbits!). During which time, the guy pulling the sword from the stone was to be Walker, Sam Claflin, Dominic Cooper, Colin Farrell, Kit Harington, Liam Hemsworth, the Scottish Hans Matheson (from Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes, 2009) or Jim Sturgess…until Hunnam promised director Ritchie he’d recover his Sons of Anarchy weight loss and then some. Furthermore, dude, he was ready to rumble with the his final rivals, Henry Cavill (Ritchie’s Man From UNCLE) and Courtney Jai. “Bring ’em both in here. I’ll fight ’em both. The one who walks out the door gets the job!”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 4