New Angry Birds 2 Trailer Has Birds And Pigs Teaming Up

New Angry Birds 2 Trailer Has Birds And Pigs Teaming Up

When it comes to Angry Birds, most people are familiar with the general premise: birds don't like pigs because they steal eggs, and so they aim to take the oinkers down by launching themselves with a slingshot. The bird vs. pig conflict is at the center of the whole thing, which is why it's a bit surprising to see them fighting on the same side in this new trailer for The Angry Birds Movie 2.

Written by Peter Ackerman (The Americans), and the feature directorial debut of Adventure Time and Camp Lazlo! writer Thurop Van Orman, The Angry Birds 2 seems to start with the famous aforementioned animosity still in place, but things start to change when the birds and pigs are united against a common enemy. It's not really made clear in this trailer, but it seems that this common enemy is a different race of birds who are tired of living on their frozen wasteland of an island.

Many of the actors from the original are coming back, including Jason Sudeikis, Josh Gad, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, and Peter Dinklage, but there are also a ton of newcomers joining the fray, including Rachel Bloom, Leslie Jones, Sterling K. Brown, Awkwafina, and Eugenio Derbez.

The first Angry Birds Movie, released in 2016, didn't exactly get the warmest reception from critics, but a sequel was definitely inevitable. Young audiences ate it up, having already been hooked on the brand courtesy of the popular mobile game, and the result was major box office success. Made with a $73 million budget, the film crossed the century mark in America with a $107.5 million gross - but that total balloons to $352.3 million when you also include all of the cash flowing in from foreign territories.

The Angry Birds Movie 2 won't exactly be following in the path of its predecessor, which got a May release when it hit theaters, but there may be significant chance for the sequel to hit even bigger when it comes out this summer. It's one of the few major movies coming out in the latter half of August this year, and that could lead to a lot of tickets being sold as parents try and figure out what the hell they should do with their kids in the weeks leading up to the start of the new school year.

This trailer has some funny moments, and the cast is certainly spectacular, so we'll just have to wait and see if The Angry Birds Movie 2 can outpace its predecessor in multiple areas. Sony Pictures Animation definitely hasn't been shy about promoting it, as this is our second full trailer, and there are still four months to go before the thing hits theaters. Perhaps they are just riding high on confidence following their big Oscar win for Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse last year.

The Angry Birds Movie 2 will be arriving in theaters on August 16th, and to see what else is coming up on the big screen in the months ahead, please check out our 2019 Movie Release Calendar.

Why Wolverine Isn’t In Dark Phoenix, According To Simon Kinberg

Why Wolverine Isn’t In Dark Phoenix, According To Simon Kinberg

Although the X-Men are traditionally an ensemble-led property, there’s no question that when it comes to the film franchise, Wolverine was the most prominent character. With the exception of Deadpool, Hugh Jackman played the clawed mutant in every X-Men-related movie from 2000 to 2017, officially retiring from the role in Logan.

However, since Dark Phoenix is marking the last of the Fox era’s main X-Men movies, you might have wondered if Hugh Jackman will reprise Wolverine for a cameo, similar to his appearances in First Class and Apocalypse. Well, no such luck, and not just because Hugh Jackman hung up the adamantium claws. Here’s what director Simon Kinberg had to say about Wolverine’s absence in Dark Phoenix:

If you know the Dark Phoenix story, you’d want to really service the love story between Logan and Jean. And I think the notion of Hugh Jackman, as great as he looks for his age, and Sophie Turner — it didn’t sit well with me. Or anyone else!

Simon Kinberg makes a fair point. On the one hand, there was a love triangle between Cyclops, Jean Grey and Wolverine in the comics era when The Dark Phoenix Saga was published, and X-Men: The Last Stand continued exploring the latter two’s romantic dynamic. Dark Phoenix eschewing that is a notable departure from the source material.

On the other hand, while there’s only a four-year age difference between Hugh Jackman and original Jean Grey Famke Janssen, Jackman and Sophie Turner have nearly 30 years separating them. Granted, Wolverine is nearly two centuries old in the modern day X-Men universe, so age will always be an issue with any woman he gets romantically involved with, but since visually it’s more noticeable between Jackman and Turner, Kinberg and the creative team decided to set that element of the original story aside.

Additionally, Simon Kinberg told Rolling Stone that excluding Wolverine from Dark Phoenix came from not wanting to divert attention from the main character, as this movie revolves around Jean Grey’s corruption. Kinberg continued:

There was an element of this being Jean’s story. And I was committing so fully to it that I didn’t want to run the risk of pulling away from Jean by going to the well of a fan-favorite character in these movies. I wanted this to be a very different experience of seeing an X-Men movie.

At least we know that in this new timeline that Dark Phoenix and its predecessor take place in, Wolverine is still set to join the X-Men somewhere down the line, just like he did in the original timeline. But as far as Dark Phoenix goes, he’s still doing his own thing nine years after Jean Grey, Cyclops and Nightcrawler freed him from William Stryker’s facility.

It also helps that Wolverine’s story was concluded in Logan, where (SPOILER ALERT) the character died in the year 2029 protecting his daughter and other young mutants being targeted by Transigen. Jackman made it clear after Logan’s release that he would not play Wolverine again, so even if Simon Kinberg and his team had wanted to include the character in Dark Phoenix, it’s highly unlikely the actor would have come back.

Dark Phoenix opens in theaters this Friday, June 7. Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more coverage (including our review of the movie) and browse through our 2019 release schedule to learn what movies there are to look forward to later this year.

Why Dumbo Actually Needed A Remake

Why Dumbo Actually Needed A Remake

Disney has become fully invested in making live-action remakes of its popular animated films. In the past few years we've seen Maleficent, The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast, and we're going to get three remakes this year alone with Dumbo, Aladdin, and The Lion King. Many have questioned why many of these movies are even being remade in the first place, considering the fact that the original films are considered classics in their own right - but if there's one Disney movie that is certainly in worthy of being remade, it's Dumbo. The original is a movie with some serious issues that need to be fixed, and a modern update is a great way to execute those changes.

There are a couple of sequences in Dumbo that simply haven't aged well. The first, you may very well be familiar with, as it has become one of the more notorious sequences in the Disney canon. Near the end of the film, when Dumbo finds himself up a tree with no memory of how he got there (because Dumbo got drunk, you see), he meets a collection of crows. The crows speak jive, and modern audiences have widely labeled them as racist caricatures. The leader of the small gang is even named Jim Crow, which... isn't great. The crows don't represent the worst we've seen from Disney, as Dumbo isn't quite on the level of Song of the South, but they do lean heavily into African-American stereotypes. That sort of thing wasn't uncommon in the 1940s, but looking back on it we can see it's wrong.

However, the crows aren't the only problematic racial element in Dumbo. Earlier in the film, we see Dumbo's circus move to a new town and begin to be constructed. This is all done to a Disney tune called the "Song of the Roustabouts." The roustabouts are singing to, and about, themselves, while putting up the circus tents. We see a change in the animation from the previous scene, which shows Dumbo and the other elephants in perfectly clear detail, to a look where the roustabouts are mostly obscured. None of them have a clear face to distinguish them as independent characters. The only thing that's clear is that they're all not white.

Beyond that, the lyrics of the "Song of the Roustabouts" are also troubling. They sing about how they are all uneducated, and that they can't read or write. They also sing about how once they get paid they'll just throw their money away, implying they wouldn't know how to do anything else. Take a listen.

However, beyond simply making a new version of Dumbo that removes these elements, there are other reasons that the Walt Disney Animated classic is a film that deserves to be remade.

Dumbo was the fourth theatrical feature released by the animation studio back in 1941, however, calling Dumbo a feature is actually being more than a little generous. The film has an official run time of only 64 minutes. It's shorter than some episodes of Game of Thrones.

The length of the film is one symptom of larger issues that Disney was facing at the time. Specifically, there was an intentional move by the studio to make Dumbo on the cheap. Since, in the case of animation, making a longer movie is simply more expensive to produce, one of the ways Dumbo was kept inexpensive was by keeping it short.

In addition to making a shorter movie, the detail work of the animation that was done clearly suffered. If you compare Dumbo to something like Pinocchio, which came before it, or Bambi, which was released after, it's clear that less detail work was done on the backgrounds and the characters, and that they don't look quite as "real" as the other animals or people in the movies Disney created in the era.

The reasons for making Dumbo cheap were simple: Walt Disney Animation Studios was in trouble. In May of 1941, 200 members of the company went on strike in an attempt to get the animators to join the Screen Cartoonists Guild. The strike lasted for nine weeks, during what would have been a prime period of work on Dumbo.

Beyond that, there were other issues. The studio's previous theatrical release, Fantasia, had bombed. This was largely due to the fact that with the start of World War II Disney movies were not seeing wide release overseas. Europe was pretty much entirely closed off, and since countries like England had been a big part of Disney's success with other films, the end of that market hit the company hard.

As such, the Disney studio had begun to make a hard turn toward creating other types of films. Even before Dumbo hit theaters Disney had been commissioned to make short film to promote the sale of Canadian War Bonds and instructional videos on aircraft construction. A large part of what the studio produced in the early 1940s were training films for military use and propaganda shorts. The U.S. would enter the war officially only a couple of months after Dumbo hit theaters and from that point until the end of the war the studio was largely focused on the war effort. The studio itself was commandeered by the U.S. Army and soundstages were used to repair military equipment.

The simple fact is that Disney wasn't able to give Dumbo the attention it deserved during its creation. You can tell that the movie is far too short considering the movie ends at the point where most films would just be getting started. The resolution between "Dumbo learns he can fly" and "Dumbo becomes the star of the circus and everybody lives happily ever after" happens within only a couple of minutes.

And Dumbo is a story worth telling right. When I watched every animated Disney movie a couple years ago in chronological order, Dumbo was the first one to make me want to tear up. The "Baby Mine" sequence is beautiful, but it's one moment a story that otherwise feels like it was put together in much more haphazard fashion. It's clear from the trailers that there's a lot more going on in this new version and that, at least in theory, is a good call.

There's certainly an argument to be made that not every animated Disney movie needs a remake. Just what did the live-action Beauty and the Beast really add to the story? However, if there's a Disney movie that could truly benefit from a remake, it's Dumbo. Now I just hope it's actually good.

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters’ Kyle Chandler Loved All The Green Screen Work

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters’ Kyle Chandler Loved All The Green Screen Work

When you think of movie monsters, there are none quite as massive (literally) as Godzilla. The titan has enthralled generations of moviegoers, appearing in countless live-action adaptations. The big guy is getting extra attention over the last few years, as the MonsterVerse puts Godzilla front and center. Following the release of Kong: Skull Island, the cinematic universe will introduce a ton of Godzilla monsters, who will go to battle with the franchise protagonist in Godzilla: King of the Monsters.

Giant monster movies obviously require a ton of visual affects, so actors must act with/in front of massive green screens. But there's also a push to include more practical sets and effects for major blockbusters, citing the difference it makes for performers. Kyle Chandler is starring in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and previously worked in the genre with 2005's King Kong. Chandler recently expressed how he enjoys the challenge that comes with extensive green screen work, saying:

I mean, you know a big film like this, there's the challenge of all the green screen, which I did in King Kong, but this is more extensive. And the deal with that is it's fun because a lot of people say 'Isn't that hard, because there's nothing there?' But the fact is everything's there, and it's yours. You're creating what's there and that's sort of enjoyable. And when you're working with it, or running through it or jumping over it, it doesn't matter what you see or what is. They put something there for you so it's sorta fun to jump over something and wonder 'I wonder what I'm gonna see in the film. Is it ice or a bullet or, what have you.' And then the idea of this will be international, so for me as an actor that's something new as well. To be seen by crowds I haven't been seen by before, so that's a good positive right there.

It looks like Kyle Chandler's love for green screen work is two fold. One one hand, it gives the actor the chance to really exercise his imagination and create a brand new world from scratch. And he also get to watch the finished product with as much wonder as audiences, because he has no clue how the movie will end up looking.

Kyle Chandler's comments from the set of Godzilla: King of the Monsters (via Comic Book) may surprise cinephiles who prefer more practical sets and effects. Too much green screen has been a point of contention in movies like the Star Wars prequel trilogy, with the current trilogy using far more practical means to film. But Chandler seems to enjoy working with extensive green screens. And with projects as massive as Godzilla and King Kong, there's really no other choice.

In Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Kyle Chandler will play Dr. Mark Russell. An animal behavior specialist and the father of Millie Bobby Brown's Madison, he'll play an instrumental role in understanding the massive monsters that occupy the blockbuster. And there's going to be plenty of them.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters will arrive in theaters on May 31st. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Wonder Woman Director Congratulates Captain Marvel Ahead Of Release

Wonder Woman Director Congratulates Captain Marvel Ahead Of Release

It's a very exciting time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Just two movies are left in Phase Three, so the stakes couldn't get much higher. On top of the exciting standoff between the MCU's heroes and Josh Brolin's Thanos, Phase Three saw the shared universe becoming a much more diverse and inclusive place. Black Panther, Ant-Man and The Wasp and Captain Marvel put people of color and women in the spotlight, while the latter will be Marvel's first female-led superhero movie. But DC got ahead of Marvel on that one, as Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman arrived in theaters back in 2017.

Patty Jenkins is hard at work with Wonder Woman 1984, the highly anticipated sequel to her first DC outing. But she is also excited for Captain Marvel to arrive in theaters, and add another complex female hero to the genre. In fact, she took the time to congratulate the cast and crew ahead of the film's release, sharing some awesome crossover art in the process.

Nothing to see here. Just two massively powerful superheroes flying together, and blurring the lines between DC and Marvel's never ending rivalry. Now that's the crossover we all need to see.

Patty Jenkins didn't receive an early screener of Captain Marvel, and according to her Tweet, she's going to have to go to the theaters like the rest of us to see Carol Danver's highly anticipated origin story. In fact, she's apparently seeing Marvel's latest blockbuster with the cast and crew of Wonder Woman 1984. So while the box office performance between the first Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel will likely be compared by the trades, Jenkins doesn't seem to be feeling competitive with Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's Marvel debut.

The pressure associated with Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman are quite different, but expectations for both blockbusters was sky high ahead of their release. Wonder Woman was DC's first critical success, as well as being the first time the title character was adapted for the silver screen. The movie ultimately delivered, and proved that Warner Bros. could craft a well-executed comic book blockbuster.

Meanwhile, Captain Marvel is pressured with breaking new ground for the MCU, and expanding the backstories of beloved characters like Nick Fury and Phil Coulson. It's also the final installment before the last decade and change of filmmaking collides with Avengers: Endgame. As such, Captain Marvel is expected to go higher, faster, and further.

You can catch Captain Marvel for yourself now, as it has finally arrived in theaters today. Wonder Woman 1984 is currently set to arrive in theaters on June 5th, 2020. In the meantime, check out our 2019 release list to plan your next trip to the movies.

Watch Nicolas Cage Go Ham Recording His Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Role

Watch Nicolas Cage Go Ham Recording His Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Role

In recent years, Oscar winner Nicolas Cage has become best known for what we’ll call his engrossing and often over-the-top acting style. That meme-worthy charisma and recognizable voice made him ideally suited to playing Spider-Man Noir in Best Animated Feature Film winner Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In advance of the film’s upcoming home video release, a new featurette shows Nic Cage going ham recording his role as the hardened crime fighter. Check it out:

You have to love how self-aware Nicolas Cage is that upon getting notes during his first recording session. The veteran actor could sense that what the director really wanted was for him to let loose and go ham (not unlike his co-star Spider-Ham). With no need to hold back or be more reserved, the veteran actor went ‘Full Cage,’ and if Robert Downy Jr.'s character in Tropic Thunder were here, I imagine he would say "You always go Full Cage."

Going 'Full Cage' brought what the director wanted and audiences demand, delivering one of the film’s standout performances. Spider-Man Noir wasn’t exactly the kind of yelling and screaming Nicolas Cage that we saw in Face/Off or last year’s Mandy (solid 2018 for him), but that wasn’t what the role called for and he ‘brought the Cage’ in a different way, delivering some truly ridiculous and hilarious lines as the color blind crime fighter.

The actor, who is a noted comic book fan, totally gets what this hard-boiled Spidey is supposed to be, comparing him to the work of author Raymond Chandler, who wrote The Big Sleep and Farewell, My Lovely. Spider-Man Noir is the prototypical noir detective, he just also happens to be Spider-Man. Nicolas Cage also said that Spider-Man Noir is probably a fan of The Public Enemy actor James Cagney and Cage definitely seemed to be channeling Cagney in his performance.

Also, it must be mentioned that Nicolas Cage’s noir attire in this featurette with the fancy black jacket is a nice touch; call it method with style. If there is any justice in this world, in addition to the previously announced sequel and spinoff to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, we’ll get another spinoff featuring Nicolas Cage’s Spider-Man Noir. He's just such a fun character and Nicolas Cage is so delightful in the role. There are limitless possibilities with the Spider-Verse and this one needs to be realized.

Fans can relive all the inter-dimensional hijinks and adventures when Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse hits Blu-ray, DVD and 4K Ultra HD on March 19. The film is already available on Digital HD.

Check our 2019 release schedule to keep track of all of this year’s biggest movies, including the return of Spider-Man in live-action and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for all your movie news.

12 Actors Who Almost Played James Bond Over The Years

12 Actors Who Almost Played James Bond Over The Years

To be offered the part of James Bond is, to some, one of the most sought after gigs ever to hit a casting call. Others, past and present, have seen that offer as either a typecasting nightmare or a public relations struggle, thus making it a poison pill... figuratively speaking. Either way, if your name comes up in reference to a role so huge as 007, it tends to make the rounds whether you take it or not.

And out of the history of the men who would be Bond, there are 12 actors who are surprise choices, as well as some prime targets, that all would have brought something different to the role. But in the case of this batch of a dozen candidates, none of them were issued that infamous license to kill.

Cary Grant

Right from the beginning of recorded franchise history, there was a surprise candidate on the shortlist to play 007 that would have changed the history of the character forever. Hollywood legend Cary Grant was offered the role as casting for Dr. No was underway, thanks to the fact that he was a personal friend/best man to the producer running the show, Albert “Cubby” Broccoli. While their friendship was strong, the British born, but American citizen Grant turned down the role for one important reason that was mentioned in The Guardian’s confirmation of this iconic story: at 58 years old, Cary Grant thought he had aged out of the part. Sean Connery was then cast, and the rest became history.

Dick Van Dyke

When Sean Connery left the role of James Bond for the first time, after 1967’s You Only Live Twice, a lot of candidates were vetted to take over the role, including a young Timothy Dalton. But while Dalton’s youth seemed to be the stumbling block that prevented him from taking the job, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang star Dick Van Dyke didn’t get the leading role in another Ian Fleming adaptation because of his controversial English accent. According to knowledge that came out of an appearance on Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show, via Yahoo, Van Dyke’s work on that very film was what interested Albert Broccoli in asking him if he’d wanted the role. But that offer quickly passed, as Dick Van Dyke asked him if he’d remembered his accent from Mary Poppins, and the offer was rescinded as quickly as it was made. Though, at the very least, Van Dyke did eventually apologize at the BAFTAs for the whole accent situation.

Clint Eastwood

If there was an American who could have taken the mantle of James Bond and been believable in the process, Clint Eastwood is one of the few who could have done it. During the hunt that eventually delivered George Lazenby into the lead for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Eastwood’s name came up in the proceedings as his lawyer also represented series mastermind Broccoli. Even in the face of an offer that gave him the hottest ticket in town, and, according to The Telegraph, a pretty lucrative pay day, the acting/directing powerhouse couldn’t bring himself to accept because it didn’t feel right. Considering how unforgettable Sean Connery was in the role, even to Clint Eastwood himself in that very moment, one can’t fault him for passing.

Burt Reynolds

Just as Burt Reynolds admitted in his autobiography that Sally Field was the one that got away in his romantic life, the Smokey and The Bandit actor fully admits that he also let his chance to be 007 slip through his fingers as well. Though, via USA Today’s coverage of that book, But Enough About Me, the late actor admitted that he passed up on the role merely because he didn’t think the moviegoing public would believe him as Bond, James Bond. Being offered the role around the time he played detective Dan August on TV, Reynolds turned down the chance to play the lead in Diamonds Are Forever. While this eventually allowed Sean Connery to return a second and final time to the franchise proper, Burt Reynolds felt that in retrospect, he could have done a hell of a job in the position.

James Brolin

This is the closest we’ve ever come to having an American playing the role of James Bond, as The Amityville Horror star James Brolin was pretty much cast as James Bond during a crucial phase in his 1980s history. The actor was screen tested for 1983’s Octopussy, when Roger Moore looked to be exiting the series in favor of new opportunities, and pretty much had the part. However, as Den Of Geek pointed out, the production of a rival Bond remake starring Sean Connery, and the recent financial woes MGM and United Artists ran into, both influenced the studio to win Moore back to his record setting job. So just as Brolin was getting ready to relocate to England full time, it all fell apart, leaving him to move onto one of his most famous roles: Peter McDermott, the general manager of the St. Gregory hotel, on the popular TV series Hotel.

Mel Gibson

While 1983’s Octopussy brought Roger Moore back to the table for two more James Bond films, 1985’s A View to a Kill would eventually mark the man’s official departure from the role. And around that time in movie history, a young Australian actor by the name of Mel Gibson was making a name for himself by starring in the Mad Max series of films. His work in that trilogy undoubtedly helped MGM come around to offering him the role, just in time for The Living Daylights to get underway, but Gibson was unphased by this potential job offering. Per coverage of an appearance on The Graham Norton Show, via Express, the man who would eventually shift over to films like Lethal Weapon said he rejected the idea because he wasn’t at all interested. Which was better off for the studio, because Albert Broccoli was not convinced he’d be a good fit, and the role eventually opened up for Timothy Dalton to finally claim it.

Sam Neill

Getting Timothy Dalton into the role of James Bond wasn’t as easy or certain as you’d think, as not only did he have to wait a while after first turning down starring in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (he felt he was too young for the role at the time), but he also was a part of a pretty wide net cast for The Living Daylights. That net not only included Mel Gibson, but also Jurassic Park’s Sam Neill, who was apparently bullied into screen testing for the film by his agent. At least, that’s what his remarks to The Telegraph said at the time he admitted to it. The screen test footage did eventually see the light of day, but not until after the settlement of a mini-crisis involving that clip not being fully cleared for usage before being included on the initial DVD release of The Living Daylights.

Ralph Fiennes

As the legal battle over the James Bond series flared up yet again in the late '80s, the delay between License To Kill and what would have been Timothy Dalton’s third Bond film eventually lead to the actor’s contract expiring without any attempt at renewal. Once the dust had settled and it was time to bring 007 into a post-Cold War world, Goldeneye was the name of the film that would make an actor the lucky spy to update the series. Believe it or not, we almost had actor Ralph Fiennes playing the role, as he admitted in an interview in Seven Magazine, via The Telegraph, that he was approached by the series’ producers. Ultimately, Fiennes wasn’t up to committing to a franchise, and he felt that the people in charge of the series were more stuck on Pierce Brosnan than anyone else. While he wasn’t too attached to Bond, Ralph Fiennes would eventually land a role that he’s still covetous of to this very day, Voldemort in the Harry Potter franchise. Still, he is the current M in the Daniel Craig era of films, so you could say that this was fate.

Ewan McGregor

If there’s anything the James Bond series has taught fans, it’s that if you don’t retire from the role, a big rift in history will do the job for you. That’s how Pierce Brosnan ended up vacating the franchise, as once Die Another Day was released, he would eventually find himself replaced, with a new round of recasting up and running. And a lot of names were considered to be James Bond in the run-up to Casino Royale, with Ewan McGregor factoring in pretty chiefly among them. Of course, were it not for his performance as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars universe, he might not have felt typecast and would have taken the role. Though in more recent times, McGregor has admitted that if he were to ever be considered again, he’d be more inclined to take the part and run.

Hugh Jackman

Another pretty big name in the Casino Royale derby was the incomparable Hugh Jackman, of X-Men and The Greatest Showman fame. As the story he told Variety goes, his agent asked him if he’d want to be considered for the role, which was being recast around the same time that X-Men 2: X-Men United was about to go into production. Not a fan of the stories the James Bond series was running at the time, Jackman passed because he felt something edgier would have been his bag, and having another involved franchise on his plate would have complicated his schedule even more. So before it got too hot, Hugh Jackman politely declined, ironically just as the Bond series was about to reboot itself in that dark and edgy tone he probably would have said yes to.

Karl Urban

New Zealand native Karl Urban falls into a boat similar to that of American candidate James Brolin before him, as fate had other ideas when it came to his consideration for the role of James Bond. Only this time, as Urban told Nine.com, it was because of a prior engagement that he didn’t land the role of Casino Royale. While he met with the producers of the series, and things went rather well in that respect, all that was missing was one final screen test to seal the deal. And that deal was definitely not sealed, because Karl Urban’s filming schedule at the time prevented that screen test from happening. But as surprising as Urban’s name is on the short list, there’s one pretty big name that got to the final four, only to see Daniel Craig win out overall.

Henry Cavill

Still a couple years out from his career boosting role on Showtime’s The Tudors, as well as playing a very Bond-like figure in The Man From U.N.C.L.E., a then-22-year-old Henry Cavill was part of the final screen tests that would decide who got to star in Casino Royale back in 2005. Listed among Daniel Craig, Goran Visnjic and Sam Worthington in the BBC’s coverage of the event, Cavill’s rejection story is quite simple when compared to all the others that we’ve covered previously. He simply wasn’t selected in the field that included Craig’s candidacy, which left him open for other opportunities in franchise like the DC Extended Universe and the Mission: Impossible series. Though another lesson that we’ve learned from the Bond franchise is, quite simply, never say never.

Henry Cavill has expressed interest and enthusiasm about potentially becoming James Bond, while cooly rounding off the rumors that continue to dog him as saying he doesn’t know what’s in store for the series after Daniel Craig’s departure. He certainly wouldn’t be the first person to get a second bite at the apple, with the potential to win overall, so we won’t count him out of the race just yet.

For now though, we’ll have Daniel Craig’s supposedly final James Bond film to look forward to, as Bond 25 is currently in production and set for an April 8, 2020 release date.