Will Smith – Rumored!
Back in 2008, Will Smith was rumored to be in the running to play Cap. He denied the rumors during an interview with MTV. “Never heard this,” he said, adding, “So if I’m in talks for it, they’re not talking to me.”
He went as far as to say that he could not picture himself in the role.
While Will denied the rumor, we recently learned that his name was floated as a potential actor to fill the role. Director Jeff Wadlow opened up about pitching a Captain America movie to Marvel and wanting to cast a very different version of the iconic hero.
“I think my pitch was too far afield from their intentions. Part of my thesis was that Captain America shouldn’t be a blonde white guy. That’s an Aryan idea. ‘Captain America should look like Will Smith or like this wrestler named The Rock.’ Ultimately, they had different plans, but 100% I would kill to make a big superhero movie,” he said during a interview on A Trip to the Movies.
Dane Cook – Confirmed He Auditioned!
Comedian Dane Cook confirmed that he auditioned to play Steve Rogers at the time, a fact that he later revealed he had to apologize for.
“Oh, I got in so much trouble. I was feeling really excited, but it was supposed to be a quiet, private thing. I wrote an apology letter to the casting director because they were upset,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2019.