TIL Leonardo DiCaprio Was Almost Cast In 3 Different Batman Movie Franchises

Considering his profile in the industry and the prominence of the genre, it is remarkable that Leonardo DiCaprio has never been in a comic book movie, but he has come close several times. Thanks to revelations from Zack Snyder, we now know that the Killers of the Flower Moon star and Oscar winner was part of the early casting stages. That’s particularly interesting given Timothee Chalamet’s confirmation that DiCaprio told him to avoid superhero movies. He’s managed it himself, so far, but not because of a lack of opportunities.

On the Marvel side of things, famously, DiCaprio was linked to playing Peter Parker in James Cameron’s Spider-Man movie when it was in early development in the 1990s. The actor spoke to Empire Magazine around the release of The Revenant to reveal how close he came, and despite how much it’s talked about, it doesn’t sound like he almost pulled on the Web-head’s costume:

“Not very close, but there was a screenplay. I know he was semi-serious about doing it at some point, but I don’t remember any further talks about it. We had a couple of chats. I think there was a screenplay that I read, but I don’t remember. This was 20 years ago!”

With DC, DiCaprio clearly had similar conversations. And it absolutely shouldn’t come as a surprise that Warner Bros’ once pulled hard for him to join their superhero franchise. When the star power is that big, it would be foolish not to try and benefit. Somewhat incredibly, Snyder’s revelations mean that DiCaprio was considered to play important roles in 3 generations of Batman movie franchises.

Zack Snyder Confirmed DiCaprio Discussed Lex Luthor’s Role In Batman v Superman

Who Played The Role: Jesse Eisenberg

In a new interview while marketing Rebel Moon Part Two: The Scargiver, Zack Snyder revealed that he and Leonardo DiCaprio had met to discuss him playing Superman nemesis Lex Luthor for the DCEU movie timeline. Ultimately, that role went to Jesse Eisenberg, but DiCaprio was enough of a consideration that they discussed the plot:

“Leonardo DiCaprio, I talked to…I think so [when asked if the actor was intrigued by the idea] I think DiCaprio had a lot of great ideas, actually, just in the meeting. I think in the end, he was like, “Eh, I don’t know…” but he was really smart about the material.”

Whether DiCaprio could have changed the tide of discourse on Batman v Superman’s reimagining of the iconic DC villain is up for debate. It’s difficult to reconcile his approach to acting with the image of the Elon Musk-clone Eisenberg made Luthor, and that portrayal is absolutely in the material and not just the performance. Still, DiCaprio turned the chance down, and the DCEU lost a great actor and the chance to see him and Ben Affleck on screen together for a union of Boston’s most famous fake sons.

Warner Bros Wanted Leonardo DiCaprio In The Nolan Trilogy

Who Played The Role: Nobody

While Christopher Nolan had other ideas, in the wake of The Dark Knight’s release and success, Warner Bros wanted The Riddler to be the villain in the third movie. And not only that, but they wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to play him. David S Goyer confirmed that the head of the studio personally appealed to him to put the DC villain in the threequel:

“After ‘The Dark Knight,’ the head of Warner Bros. at the premiere said, ‘You got to do the Riddler. Leo as the Riddler. You got to tell Chris, Leo as the riddler.’ And that’s not the way we work.”

Intriguingly, the prospect of the Riddler being the follow-up to Heath Ledger’s Joker wasn’t entirely out of the realms of possibility at the time. Jonathan Nolan, who worked on all 3 of the Dark Knight movies, spoke about his own ideas for the character, and why they never really turned into any tangible plans:

“I sort of started to play with ideas about The Riddler and what could be done with that character. But it did feel like it was close enough to the space of what we’d done with Heath [Ledger] that you really needed to…shift there.”

Nolan is right about the perceived closeness to Ledger’s Joker, but the idea of DiCaprio playing The Riddler is the hardest to shake off. Given his roles in the likes of Wolf of Wall Street and Django Unchained, he has previous with playing charismatic villains, and he could have really done something with the material.

Joel Schumacher Wanted DiCaprio To Play Robin

Who Played The Role: Chris O’Donnell

In the early 1990s, before Titanic really launched him into megastardom, DiCaprio arrived on the Hollywood scene as a hot new talent thanks to the likes of This Boy’s Life and particularly What’s Eating Gilbert Grape opposite Johnny Depp. He then went on to even more acclaim with 1995’s The Basketball Diaries, but things could have been very different if Joel Schumacher had gone with his early casting instincts.

DiCaprio confirmed in an interview with Shortlist that he was in the running to play the Robin role that eventually went to Chris O’Donnell, though he debunked the idea that he actually put the red and green costume on:

Did that include playing Robin in Batman Forever? There’s a rumour you screen-tested for it…

I never screen-tested. I had a meeting with Joel Schumacher. It was just one meeting and, no, I didn’t end up doing it

Did you actually want the role?

Er, I don’t think I did, no (laughs). As I recall I took the meeting, but didn’t want to play the role. Joel Schumacher is a very talented director but I don’t think I was ready for anything like that.

It’s interesting to think of the possible trajectory of DiCaprio’s career if he had. O’Donnell was a similarly well-heralded actor in the period thanks to both Scent of a Woman (1992) and The Three Musketeers (1993) but the reception of Batman & Robin slowed his career significantly, with only 6 theatrical movies in the next 10 years, probably headlined by Vertical Limit. In the same period, DiCaprio was in the likes of The Beach (2000), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Gangs of New York (2002) and The Aviator (2004), picking up his first Oscar and BAFTA nominations for Best Actor.

Ironically, after What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, DiCaprio would probably have been better suited to playing Robin as a tortured orphan in a Tim Burton Batman movie. Sadly, that particular casting stays in the realms of fantasy. And until someone convinces Leonardo DiCaprio to change his mind on superhero movies, another casting opportunity may not come up again.