- Lee Thompson Young, Rizzoli & Isles, TV, 2010-2014. Up for the latest take on Cagney & Lacey,. Barry Frost was a computer wiz, scared of corpses and blood. Creator Janet Tamaro wasn’t sure if he should be an actor or a rap/R&B star. Like Jordan and Chadwick Boseman (far too big in movies), Nate Parker, Robert Ri’chard, Khelo Thomas, Jaleel White or: Ginuwine, Donald Glover, Marques Houston, Romeo Miller, Ne-Yo, Usher Raymond or Columbus Short. Finally, Young won the gig. He committed suicide in 2013, following years of bipolar disorder and clinical depression. His family formed a foundation in his name to help battle the stigma associated with mental illness.
- Anthony Mackie, Triple Nine, 2013. Schedules clashed and Jordan had to leave the corrupt cops blackmailed into an “impossible” heist… which involved killing one of their own.
- Dane DeHaan, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, 2013. Lost Harry Osborn to his Chronicle co-star.
- Anthony Mackie, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, 2013. Encore! Mackie won Sam Wilson/Falcon, by the simple expedient of writing to Marvel about his ambition to be a Marvel hero and giving black kids another black superdude to root for after Iron Man’s War Machine. Jordan was Johnny Storm in The Fantastic Four, 2014, and won better reviews a year later for his boxer, Creed, trained by Rocky, himself, Slyvester Stallone. And was a major part of the gigantic success of Marvel’s Black Panther, as Erik Killmonger, the adversary of Chadwick Boseman’s titular King T’Challa of Wakanda.
- Corey Hawkins, Straight Outa Compton, 2014. His increasingly packed schedule preventedf MJB playing Dr Dre in the controversial, noirish bio of the rap group, Niggaz With Attitude or NWA – producer Dr Dre, writer Ice Cube (played by his son, O’Shea Jackson Jr) and Eazy-E. It wasn’t only loca lfilm critics complaining about the “smudging,” as LA Weekly’s Ann Nicholson put it, of the trio. “They’re bland good guys – geniuses, really,” added Nicholson. “Ironically, it’s left to Eazy-E, the deceased member who can’t sue, to give their story life.”
- Ray Fisher, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, 2015.
- Anthony Mackie, Triple 9, 2015. Title is US PD code for: officer down. First choice for rotten cop Marcus Belmont in this Kosher Nostraheist movie, stuffed with A-listers but listing in the wrong direction. Tighter, faster, it could have been something better than Rerservoir Puppies.
- Isiah Mustafa, It Chapter Two, 2018. Veterans like Don Cheadle and Taye Diggs were listed, of course. But the adult Mike Hanlon was a job for one of the new generation. Mustafa, from Shadowhunters, survived such heady heavy opposition as Chadwick Boseman, Donald Glover, Michael B Jordan, Anthony Mackie and Craig Robinson. Idris Elba was also keen, after his Stephen King film, The Dark Tower, 2016. This was the 262nd of King’s staggering 313 screen credits … and his second biggest hit! The first? It, 2016, of course. (King Kameo: Pawnbroker).
- James Marsden, Sonic the Hedgehog, 2019. For the new movie version of the video game, 15 actors jostled for Tom Wachowski, the Montana cop helping the speedy blue blur alien from another planet in his fight against Jim Carrey’s Dr Robotnik. They were: Jordan, Jack Black, Ansel Elgort, Chris Evans, Bill Hader (also up for voicing Sonic), Ed Helms, Jake Johnson, Adam Pally (also seen for Sonic, he wound up as Wade, Tom’s deputy), Chris Pratt, Paul Rudd, Jason Segal, Justin Timberlake, Milo Ventimiglia, Owen Wilson and Marsden, who was ready for “as many as they want to make. it was so much fun to see Jim enjoying himself again.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 9