A Marvel Director Turned Down The Offer To Play Chandler Bing On Friends

David Crane's and Marta Kauffman's sitcom "Friends" was constructed and pitched to be very low-concept. There were no strange dramatic conceits or an unusual premise that would take a long time to explain. It was simply a show about six friends (two of them siblings) who lived in neighboring apartments in New York City. The characters were all in their 20s, and spent the series navigating various jobs and relationships, finding they were forming an ersatz family in one another. The success of the show was going to contingent on the writing (of course) and on the charisma of the six leads. Luckily, the casting director on "Friends" was spot-on, finding six perfectly-matched, attractive white twentysomethings to inhabit the show's mythically inexpensive New York apartments. 

Each one of the six "Friends" became gigantic stars, and it wasn't long before they were fetching gigantic salaries. Jennifer Aniston played the lovelorn Rachel, Courteney Cox played her best friend Monica, Lisa Kudrow played the flighty hippie Phoebe, David Schwimmer played Monica's neurotic brother Ross (beloved by Rachel), Matt LeBlanc played the cocky actor Joey, and the late Matthew Perry played the amusingly smug "transponster" Chandler. 

Because chemistry and comedic talent were key to the success of "Friends," the audition process was extensive. Out of 1,000 auditions, 75 actors became finalists. After many callbacks and heartbreaking phone calls, the 75 was eventually winnowed down to 18, with three potential actors for each central role. Fans of "Friends" likely know the litany of actors who were turned away, including Jon Cryer, Hank Azaria, Kathy Griffin, the too-young Tiffani Amber Thiessen, Craig Bierko, Vince Vaughn, and, yes, future Marvel filmmaker Jon Favreau. 

Favreau auditioned to play Chandler, and was indeed one of the finalists. He turned the role down, however. The reason why was covered by a 2011 article in Vulture. In short, he wanted to make movies instead.

Matthew Perry, as everyone now knows, played the role of Chandler on "Friends", but he would have lost the part to Jon Favreau, had Favreau elected to stay. According to the Vulture article, Favreau decided not to pursue "Friends" because he wanted to work on his filmmaking career. At the time, he was trying to get his script "Swingers" made into a movie, a film he would also want to star in. Starring in "Friends" would have taken up too much of his time, and he wouldn't be able to make "Swingers." Favreau finally made it happen by 1996, two years after "Friends" debuted, but it was a wise career move. "Swingers" became an acclaimed indie hit, and proved that Favreau was an important voice in '90s indie filmmaking. 

Prior to his "Friends" audition, Favreau only had scant roles in notable films, appearing in the background of films like "Folks!" and "Hoffa." In 1993, he caught some attention playing D-Bob in the sports movie "Rudy," and in 1994, appeared on an episode of "Seinfeld" and in the movies "PCU" and Alan Rudolph's "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle." There's every reason to believe that Favreau would have availed himself well on "Friends," and might have even become a more celebrated actor than he already is, but filmmaking was his preferred career path, so he traversed in that direction instead. 

The "Friends" casting directors didn't forget about Favreau, however, and eventually cast him — in 1997 — in the role of Pete Becker, an itinerant boyfriend of Rachel. Favreau appeared in six episodes of "Friends," so he kind of got to have his cake and eat it too.

Some my feel that Favreau's rejection of "Friends" was foolish, given how rich and famous its stars eventually became. Some may recall that the six leads commanded a million dollars per episode to star in the show's 10th and final season. Know, though, that "Swingers" not only established Favreau's cred as a filmmaker, but that it made an impressive $4.6 million on a tiny $250,000 budget. Favreau paid the bills by acting — he appeared in films like "Deep Impact" and "Very Bad Things" — before returning to directing with "Made" in 2001. "Made" didn't cause quite as big a stir as "Swingers," but it was still a highly lauded hit. 

In 2003, Favreau broke commercial by directing "Elf," a whimsical Christmas movie starring Will Farrell. That film had a larger budget of $33 million, which Favreau handled with ease. "Elf" ended up making almost $229 million. Favreau was now a legitimate hitmaker. His 2005 film "Zathura: A Space Adventure" was only mildly beloved, but his 2008 film "Iron Man" formed the storytelling and aesthetic cornerstone of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, one of the most financially successful action franchises of all time. He oversaw several of those movies as a producer, and starred in a few. And then, not to be outdone, Favreau began making the hit "Star Wars" tie-in series "The Mandalorian" in 2019, proving that he could ride as high as Hollywood needed him to. 

2026 will see the release of his feature film "The Mandalorian and Grogu." I think Favreau has few regrets when it comes to turning down the role of Chandler on "Friends."