Heath Ledger

Before Christian Bale was auditioned for Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan had meetings with many young actors for the role of the superhero and one of them was Heath Ledger – the man who arguably presented to us the best live-action incarnation of The Joker! While you would expect a young actor to be excited to be considered for the role of Batman, Ledger told Nolan that he wasn’t interested in playing the superhero! That’s what the director himself revealed back in 2012. He said (via IndieWire):

“He was quite gracious about it, but he said, ‘I would never take a part in a superhero film.’”

Then, why did Ledger play The Joker in The Dark Knight? According to Nolan, “I explained to him what I wanted to do with ‘Batman Begins‘ and I think maybe he felt I achieved it.”

Ethan Hawke

The four times Academy Awards nominee Ethan Hawke must have been very close to play Batman because it was he who turned down the offer that came from Joel Schumacher for Batman Forever. Why did he refuse to take up the cape and cowl? Here’s the answer that Ethan himself provided to Details:

“I just didn’t want to go to the Knicks game and have everybody go, “Wow, you were a great Batman!” That wasn’t my fucking goal in life. Now I wish I’d done it, because I could have used it to do other things.”

So, he regrets turning down the role! Indeed, he should, shouldn’t he?

One of the actors on the next page was not only close to play Batman, but Spider-Man as well!