15 Actors Who Turned Down DC Comics Roles

Ask most actors today, and they'll tell you even a brief visit to the Marvel Cinematic Universe is like winning a lottery ticket. Sure, things might have taken a turn for the worse after "Avengers: Endgame," but who wouldn't want a seven-to-eight-figure payday and a global audience to boot? A trip to the DC Universe, on the other hand, has only recently become as attractive.

DC's credibility has been decidedly mixed, even as it helped establish the superhero subgenre. For every "Dark Knight" or "Batman '89," there's a "Batman v Superman" or "Batman & Robin." If you're an actor, especially one just getting started in their career, a hefty payday might not be enough to mitigate the risk to your career.

This reality hasn't stopped Warner Bros. from pursuing the biggest names in the industry for their films and television shows. The actors below turned down roles across five decades. Some were exactly the embarrassment they predicted they would be, but others were massive missed opportunities the actors themselves now sorely regret.

Here are 15 actors who turned down DC Comics roles in movies.

The superhero genre has been after Leonardo DiCaprio since the moment his career took off — as of writing, there's no sign they'll ever catch him. "Opportunity" first came knocking in the mid-'90s, after he earned his first Academy Award nomination (of many) at 19 years old, for the 1993 coming-of-age drama "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" Director Joel Schumacher was set to take over the "Batman" film series at Warner Bros. from Tim Burton, starting with "Batman Forever." Val Kilmer was set to play the titular caped crusader — and Schumacher thought DiCaprio might make the perfect boy wonder.

DiCaprio took a meeting with Schumacher but, by his own account, didn't take it too seriously. "As I recall I took the meeting, but didn't want to play the role," he told Shortlist in 2015. "Joel Schumacher is a very talented director but I don't think I was ready for anything like that." Based on his comments about the superhero genre at large, he likely found the predictable lack of complex characters unattractive. Ironically, around the same time DiCaprio gave that statement, "Batman v Superman" director Zack Snyder had or was about to court him for Lex Luthor and, well, we know how that turned out.

Before Zack Snyder ultimately landed on his more subversive Lex Luthor for "Batman v Superman," the director considered a wide range of A-list actors. In the years since, he's thrown out many names casually — Tom Hanks, Bradley Cooper, Adam Driver, Matt Damon — without elaborating on whether or not he ever got to the point of calling their agent. One name among them, however, reportedly made it much further than an initial meeting.

According to reporting at the time, recent "Her" and "Inherent Vice" star Joaquin Phoenix was fully offered the role (at a point so early in production that outlets could only speculate it would be Lex). Why he apparently turned it down is unclear — neither he nor Snyder have spoken about it publicly, save for Snyder's offhand remarks about Phoenix being in the mix. The role ultimately went to "The Social Network" breakout Jesse Eisenberg, whose impish, Joker-like portrayal invoked the ire of a fanbase ready to hate him. Phoenix, meanwhile, bided his time and made his DC Comics debut as the Clown Prince of Crime himself in "Joker," earning an Academy Award in the process.

Leonardo DiCaprio wasn't alone in his reticence toward the superhero subgenre. Anthony Hopkins turned down two DC roles in two decades, at least according to multiple entertainment news outlets. What we know for certain is that, at some point before Christopher Nolan showed up at Michael Caine's house with a script for "Batman Begins," Hopkins was the acclaimed British actor Nolan was after for Alfred Pennyworth. The actor turned it down for unknown reasons, but less than a decade later, he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Odin in "Thor." (Hopkins has shared with the New Yorker that, on such blockbuster scripts, he writes the letters "NAR," meaning, "No acting required.")

The trickier role to verify is alleged to have come Hopkins' way 20 years earlier, when the actor was reportedly contacted by Joel Schumacher about playing Mr. Freeze in "Batman and Robin." It's unclear how that widespread rumor got started, but it reached such a pitch that a journalist from GQ couldn't help but confront Hopkins with it during an interview. "I doubt it," he told the magazine, looking (presumably with some confusion) at a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I've never heard of that before. Who's Mr Freeze?"

Over a decade after Patty Jenkins directed Charlize Theron to an Academy Award win in the 2003 drama "Monster," the director came back to her with the opportunity to join the cast of "Wonder Woman." Their reunion made perfect sense on paper, even aside from their prior working relationship — Theron had turned herself into a prestige action star overnight thanks to her standout performance in George Miller's acclaimed epic "Mad Max: Fury Road."

What didn't make sense, at least to Theron, was the role. Before Gal Gadot was cast, it had gotten out that Theron had turned down "Wonder Woman." Many understandably assumed she declined the title role, when in actuality she turned down that of Hippolyta, Wonder Woman's mother. Theron was in her early 40s when the film hit theaters, less than 10 years older than Gadot. On "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen," she described the whole affair as "a great example of how Hollywood slaps you in the face when you start aging." The role ultimately went to Connie Nielsen.

In 1990, Annette Bening earned her first Academy Award nomination for playing a con-artist in Stephen Frears' "The Grifters." This antiheroic performance caught the attention of many in the industry, including Tim Burton, who was searching for his Catwoman for the upcoming "Batman Returns." Unlike most of the above actors, Bening jumped at the chance to be considered, and she actually beat out the likes of Susan Sarandon, Meryl Streep, Demi Moore, and Cher for the role. This was the kind of gig that could lead to a multi-million dollar spin-off after all.

She took the part and was ready to start rehearsals — then, she found out she was pregnant. From that moment forward, Bening knew she wouldn't be able to spend months getting vacuumed into a latex cat costume. "I would have loved to have played Catwoman, but I got pregnant," she told Mind Food in 2017. "When you come down to those kinds of choices, they don't even come close..." Bening later played the Supreme Intelligence in the MCU film "Captain Marvel."

Before Warner Bros. and Tim Burton went with Annette Bening, they were seriously considering pop icon-turned-actor Madonna for the role of Catwoman. The early 90s were peak for the star's cultural relevance, and her turn in the 1990 comic book movie "Dick Tracy" had already introduced her to the very audience Burton was seeking to satisfy.

Madonna hasn't stated why exactly she turned down Catwoman in "Batman Returns," only that it was a significant regret in her career. After all, Burton's take on Catwoman felt tailor-made for someone with her stage presence. After she took herself out of consideration, Burton went forward with casting Bening, a devastating blow to Michelle Pfeiffer, who was a life-long fan of the character. She was eventually handed the whip, however, and gave the character her most distinct on-screen portrayal yet. As for Madonna, she instead starred in the baseball dramedy "A League of Their Own."

Even in the most recent, potential golden age of DC Comics projects, the jobs still aren't a sure "yes" for some actors. Take Josh Brolin, for instance. The actor has been there for the highest highs (Thanos in "Avengers: Endgame") and the lowest lows ("Jonah Hex") in the superhero genre, and has made it through each film with his reputation intact. But when presented with his fifth comic book role (if you count "Men in Black"), Brolin walked away with no regrets.

Before they cast Kyle "TV's greatest dad" Chandler, the HBO series "Lanterns" formally offered Brolin the role of the aged Hal Jordan. The previous man to take up the oath in live-action was Ryan Reynolds, who has made no secret of how much he resents that particular role — he even "assassinated" the version of him that said yes to the 2011 movie in the "Deadpool" sequel that co-starred Brolin as Cable. While we don't know if Reynolds' resentment was even a thought for Brolin when he got the offer, he praised Chandler's casting, and, in the same Yahoo interview, made it known that he'd return to the role of Thanos without hesitation.

Josh Brolin isn't the only actor to be wary of the Green Lantern's light. Before Warner Bros. landed on Ryan Reynolds as the lead of the 2011 film, they sought the star of one of the most prestigious television series running at the time: Jon Hamm. "Mad Men" had turned him into a distinguished leading man in Hollywood, and in some ways, "Green Lantern" probably seemed like a logical next step in his career.

But Hamm just wasn't buying what Warner Bros. was selling. "They came after me pretty hard for Green Lantern," he told GQ ahead of the final season of the AMC series. "But I was like, meh, that's not what I want to do. Never say never, but those aren't the kind of movies I like to go see." Reynolds took on the job after him (though he sadly didn't rewrite the screenplay). Hamm has yet to don spandex of any kind, though not for lack of trying. As recently as 2023, he's publicly expressed his love for the MCU and his desire to join the franchise in some capacity.

As hard as it was to find Catwoman for "Batman Returns," it was another feat entirely to nail down the role of Bruce Wayne in the original film. Tim Burton wanted an actor's actor who could convince the audience to root for a guy dressed up in a bat costume rather than laugh him out of the theater; the studio wanted a name.

One of the names they landed on was, unsurprisingly, Mel Gibson, a bankable action star at the time ("Mad Max" and "Lethal Weapon" were already under his utility belt) with the artistic flourish to satisfy Burton. For unknown reasons, however, Gibson passed on the role. When the news broke, the actor curiously denied he ever auditioned (he later said he turned it down no less than three times) and implied he might've taken the role if Warners offered him tens of millions of dollars.

As much as the studio was after stars of Mel Gibson's caliber, they were also entertaining newer talent as well. Ray Liotta had only featured in a handful of films at the time, the 1986 film "Something Wild" coming closest to the register Tim Burton was after for "Batman." In 1989, the role of Bruce Wayne could've easily turned Liotta into a movie star — but the young actor didn't even take the meeting.

In a previously unpublished Deadline interview posted shortly after his death in 2023, Liotta chalked his decision to refuse Burton up to ignorance. He had no context for what a superhero was or could be at the time (as he acknowledges himself, "Batman" was one of the first serious superhero movies ever made). He recalls telling his agent, "Are you f***ing nuts? 'Batman?!' .. No, that's stupid." He went on to explain that, in the end, he wound up feeling stupid for not knowing how big it was going to be.

In the latter years of his career, however, Liotta appeared conflicted about his apparently staunch opposition to the entire superhero genre, implying in the same interview that he was doing everything he could to avoid acquiescing to a desire to see him in tights. But when asked why he never did a superhero project when he was younger, Liotta replied, "Because I was an idiot."

Pierce Brosnan was in a similar position to Ray Liotta in terms of fame. The Irish actor wouldn't take on the role of James Bond until 1995, and even five years prior, it was apparently all too easy to imagine him as a dashing, dangerous man hiding behind an expensive suit.

Brosnan went further than Liotta, taking a meeting with Tim Burton sometime after he starred in "Taffin." He has since joked that he believes he blew his audition with a dumb joke about Batman wearing his underwear on the outside, but in a Reddit AMA prior to that recollection, Brosnan asserted he turned down the role because he thought Batman himself was the joke. "I just couldn't really take it seriously, any man who wears his underpants outside his pants just cannot be taken seriously," he wrote. "That was my foolish take on it. It was a joke, I thought. But how wrong was I?"

He was far from harmed by the rejection. Burton controversially cast Michael Keaton, and he got everything he wanted out of the performance. Later, he cast a post-"GoldenEye" Brosnan as a scientist in "Mars Attacks!" In 2023, Brosnan finally entered the DC Universe as Doctor Fate in "Black Adam."

One of the oldest pieces of DC Comics casting lore is that Josh Hartnett turned down the title role in Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins." From the actor's own memory, he was hesitant to do the film out of fear of being typecast, but hoped he'd still get the chance to be seen for Nolan's "The Prestige." Christian Bale took both roles and quickly established himself as one of Hollywood's most transformative leading men.

But both Hartnett and Nolan have since set the record straight (around the time they reunited for the Oscar-winning feature "Oppenheimer"). "Batman" was never a firm offer toward Hatrnett. Superman certainly was though.

After appearing in American war films "Pearl Harbor" and "Black Hawk Down," he was approached about an early 2000s "Superman" movie. Timeline-wise, it's likely it was the J.J. Abrams-scripted "Superman: Flyby." Hartnett was conscious of how taking the part might result in him losing control over his career.

Another "what if?" to come out of the scrapped "Superman: Flyby" project was Jude Law as Superman. The actor has spoken about the process more extensively than Josh Hartnett, sharing that the studio went so far as making him a custom Superman suit to convince him he was the man for the job. It wasn't enough for Law.

"I didn't want to spend the rest of my life being that guy who played Superman," he said in a 2015 MTV interview. "If you ever get caught smoking and you're Superman then you ruin the lives of all the children around the world." Years later, Law got the chance to play a supervillain with much lower cultural stakes in "Captain Marvel" (Yon-Rogg can probably punch a dart whenever he likes). "Superman: Flyby" remains one of the most infamous unproduced superhero movies of all time.

1970s Clint Eastwood was simply unmatched — probably the greatest living movie star at the time. As such, studios wanted him for everything, even if he wasn't 100% right for the role. When asked to star in Richard Donner's "Superman," he passed easily.

"I always liked characters that were more grounded in reality," he said to Hero Complex in 2010. "Maybe they do super things or more-than-human things — like Dirty Harry, he has a knack for doing crazy things, or the western guys — but, still, they're not caped crusaders."

As easy as it is to imagine Eastwood gruffly turning down comic book movies at large for lacking the hardened machismo of his films in the Western and crime genres, the actor was actually endearingly game to take on a much more modest character. "[Namor,] The Sub-Mariner, that's the one I always liked," he added. "I had all of those comics when I was a kid."

In terms of box office draw and Hollywood heat, Will Smith was the Clint Eastwood of the early 2000s. He famously turned down several major roles (and took on a few he probably should've rejected), most fascinating among them being Superman.

In Smith's own words, he turned down "Superman" because he was afraid of the backlash sure to come when it was announced a Black man was cast as the Man of Steel. Smith had just starred in "Wild Wild West" at the time, and he felt that his race had played a major role in the negative reaction to the movie. He joked, "You mess up white people's heroes in Hollywood, you'll never work in this town again!"

Smith went on to play an original, satirical super-man in the 2008 action comedy "Hancock," and later joined the DC Universe as "Deadshot" in the 2016 film "Suicide Squad." DC and Warners have actually remained interested in a "Superman" project with a Black lead, but no project has materialized as of writing.