'True Blood' Star Joe Manganiello Lost 'Superman' Due To Scheduling Conflicts

Fans upset by the casting of British Henry Cavill as the all-American Superman can now redirect their ire to the HBO shooting schedule: True Blood star Joe Manganiello revealed this weekend that he had to drop out of the running in the final stages, when the Superman screen test conflicted with his True Blood schedule. Read more after the jump.

At the end of the day they wanted me to screen test and they actually asked for my measurements for the suit and everything...Their shoot date switched and it would have taken up 11 weeks out of my True Blood ' schedule. At the end of the day, we couldn't get the schedule to work so that I could go off and screen test. So, regrettably, I never go to screen test, I never got to put the suit on.

Bummer.

There's no way to know how Maganiello's Superman would've compared to Cavill's Superman, but it's interesting to consider. Manganiello certainly has the look to pull off both the handsome Man of Steel and the bumbling Clark Kent, and a quick Google Image search will tell you everything you need to know about how he would've looked in primary color Spandex. My knowledge of his actual acting skills is limited, as I watch neither True Blood nor One Tree Hill, but I haven't heard any complaints from people who do.

Had Manganiello gotten the part, Superman would've been his second time stepping into a comic book universe — he had a small role as Flash Thompson in 2002's Spider-Man.

Superman is scheduled to hit theaters in late 2012. In addition to Cavill, the film also stars Diane Lane as Martha Kent.Discuss: How do you feel about Henry Cavill now that you know we could've had Joe Manganiello instead? Am I the only one who knows Manganiello primarily as Marshall's man-date Brad from How I Met Your Mother?