14 Actors Who Apparently Almost Played Star-Lord In "Guardians Of The Galaxy" Before Chris Pratt Was Cast

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"I wanted that one," Adam told Variety in an interview while running down a list of films in which he was in various stages of consideration for roles, including Gigli, Shattered Glass, and an old version of The Justice League. Still, Brody understood why Chris was ultimately cast in Guardians. "He's better for it than me. He's bigger, stronger," he said, though noting "tonally, I really dug it."

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In 2012, Lee Pace opened up to MTV News about preparing to audition for the role. "I have been [reading up on Star-Lord]," he told the publication. "You want to know what you're doing. The character is a lot of fun. I hope it works out." While Lee wasn't cast as Star-Lord, he did join the film in another role: the antagonist Ronan the Accuser. He reprised the character in 2019 for Captain Marvel.

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According to IndieWire, Joel Edgerton was one of several actors who tested for the role. Joel has gone on to do everything from direct films (The Gift and Boy Erased) to star in hit movies (The Great Gatsby and Loving) and continue his appearance in the Star Wars franchise as Owen Lars.

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Eddie Redmayne was also mentioned in IndieWire's report. Not getting cast certainly didn't hurt Eddie's career as he soon after won an Oscar for playing Stephen Hawking in Theory of Everything.

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IndieWire named Jack Huston. He went on to appear in films like American Hustle, The Irishman, and House of Gucci.

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IndieWire named Sullivan Stapleton too. His subsequent acting work included starring on Blindspot for five seasons and in 300: Rise of an Empire.

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IndieWire also named James Marsden. His career is continuing on just fine with notable roles in Anchorman 2, the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise, and TV series Westworld and Dead to Me. He also just scored his first Emmy nomination earlier this year for the comedy series, Jury Duty.

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Garrett Hedlund was named by IndieWire too. Ironically, according to the Daily Beast, Chris auditioned for the role of Sam Flynn in the 2010 film TRON: Legacy, which ultimately went to Garrett. Though he didn't land Guardians, Garrett has gone on to star in appear in films like Pan, Mudbound, and The United States vs. Billie Holiday, as well as the series Mosaic and Tulsa King.

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In 2013, Jim Sturgess told MTV News of his audition for Star-Lord, "I got way further than I'd ever imagined I possibly could. As you get further and further down the line, you start caring about it more and more. The competitiveness in you starts kicking in. But I was amazed I'd gotten as far down the line as I did." In fact, Jim told the publication he remained in the running long enough that he partook in an unexpected costume fitting. "You should have told me! I would have been crunching in the dressing room!" he recalled. He's since had leading roles in the series Feed the Beast and Home Before Dark among other acting work.

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In 2021, Zachary Levi told the Playlist that he wanted the role of Star-Lord "so bad, like so, so, so, so bad." However, he's at peace with losing out on the role. In fact, he thinks that having hopefully left "a good impression" while auditioning with Guardians director James Gunn is what helped him land the lead role of Billy Batson in the Shazam movies. James's friend and collaborator Peter Safran produced Shazam. "I'm indebted to James that he would believe in me enough to remember that and pass that info on," he said.

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In 2013, Deadline reported that Joseph Gordon-Levitt had been added to the list of actors in contention for Star-Lord.

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In 2017, Michael Rosenbaum opened up to the Hollywood Reporter about auditioning for the role in front of James, his friend, noting things didn't get weird between them after Chris booked the part. "The way I look at it … I was privileged to be one of the few people that got to screen test. I was so honored and grateful that James had me audition," he said. Seems like things really were fine because Michael went on to play the character of Martinex in both Guardians sequels.

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In 2017, James told The Daily Beast that John Gallagher Jr. auditioned for Star-Lord. "He wasn’t right for that role, but it was one of the best auditions — if not the best audition — I’d ever seen in my entire life. The guy is a real actor," he said. The director and actor would later work together on the 2016 film, The Belko Experiment.

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Finally, there's Glenn Howerton. He was reportedly James's second choice to play Star-Lord. In 2021, Glenn said on The Kelly Clarkson Show that no one told him how close he was to securing the role. "I went and auditioned for it like I think a lot of actors did. I had no idea how close I got. I walked out of there and I was like, 'Ya, it went OK.' But actually as I was walking out of the waiting room, I saw Chris Pratt and I remembered thinking, 'Oh, he's perfect for this.'"