A Twilight Star Almost Became Marvel's Thor Or Captain America
Movie history has no shortage of interesting stories about people who were almost cast as iconic characters, but had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts (or were fired from major Hollywood movies and replaced with other actors). Superhero movies alone have a long list of such tales, from the various actors who almost joined (or were rumored for) Marvel's "Fantastic Four" cast to Hugh Jackman replacing Dougray Scott as Wolverine in "X-Men" after delays in filming "Mission: Impossible II" threw Scott's schedule out of sync.
Naturally, these aren't the only times when the casting process for Marvel superheroes involved multiple actors before landing on the name we now associate with the role. In an interview with Comic Book Movie, Kellan Lutz (who played Emmett Cullen in the "Twilight" movies) revealed that back in the early days of the MCU, he was in the mix to play either Thor or Captain America:
"Look, would I love to do Marvel or 'The Avengers' ... I auditioned for Thor and Captain America. I got pretty close to those ones, but obviously Chris [Hemsworth] and Chris [Evans] are brilliant for those. I don't think I've auditioned again for a Marvel one, but I'd be open to doing another big franchise."
Kellan Lutz has played a few famous characters himself
As Lutz noted, the actors who were ultimately selected to play the Marvel Cinematic Universe incarnations of the God of Thunder and Captain America — Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans — have done a great job to the point that it would be truly difficult to imagine anyone else playing Thor Odinson and Steve Rogers. That being said, Lutz himself might not have reached quite the same level of fame as the Chrises, but his post-"Twilight" career has still featured some interesting roles.
After "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2" ended the supernatural romance series in 2012, Lutz has appeared in multiple TV shows or movies every year save for 2024. He also has some pretty memorable characters in his résumé: In 2013, he played the titular character in Reinhard Klooss' jungle adventure "Tarzan," and the next year, he suited up as Hercules in Renny Harlin's "The Legend of Hercules." He's also worked opposite Bruce Willis in the 2015 action thriller "Extraction" (not to be confused with the better-known 2020 Chris Hemsworth movie of the same name), and joined the Sylvester Stallone-led action hero allstars of "The Expendables 3" as John Smilee, a key new recruit for the titular team.
All these roles and more have kept Lutz plenty busy, and he's seen some fairly significant small screen success, as well. Fans of Dick Wolf's procedurals will remember the actor as Special Agent Kenny Crosby, a prominent player in the "FBI" franchise and one of the main characters of "FBI: Most Wanted."