7 Big Movies That Almost Starred Henry Cavill (He Was in the Running to Play 3 DC Heroes Before Superman)

2011′s Green Lantern

Ryan Reynolds‘ adaptation of the popular DC character Green Lantern set him on the path to eventually play his iconic character Deadpool. However, the movie, which also starred Blake Lively, was not a box office smash.

The movie was almost an opportunity for Henry to make his debut within the DC Universe. According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, he was considered alongside the likes of Jared Leto and Michael Fassbender but did not make it to the final considerations, which included Ryan, Bradley Cooper and Justin Timberlake.

Henry does not appear to have ever addressed this audition process.

2008′s Twilight

Twilight famously turned its stars Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner into some of the biggest names on the planets, but neither choice for Bella or Edward were author Stephenie Meyer‘s first choice.

Who did she want to play the sparkling vampire? Henry. Back in 2007, the author mourned that he was too old to play Edward in a post on her blog. “The most disappointing thing for me is losing my perfect Edward. Henry Cavill is now twenty-four-years-old. Let us have a moment of quiet in which to mourn,” she wrote. At the time, she even toyed with Henry playing Carlisle, the patriarch of the Cullen family.

Henry opened up about the casting news years later in 2022. While on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, he explained that he had no idea he was even up for the role at the time!

“I didn’t know about them wanting to cast me and the internet wasn’t quite the tool that it is now and so I only found out afterwards. I was like, ‘Oh okay, that would have been cool,’” he admitted.