After Darren Aronofsky’s adaptation of Year One fell through and the Wachowskis chose to make The Matrix sequels instead of taking a trip to Gotham City, Warner Bros. finally got Christopher Nolan to reboot the Batman movie franchise. Joel Schumacher had turned the franchise into a laughing stock with the absurdity of Batman & Robin, and Nolan saved it with the gritty, grounded, realistic tone of Batman Begins.
Before he cast Christian Bale as the Caped Crusader and Cillian Murphy as the Scarecrow, Nolan considered a number of big-name actors to play the hero and villain in his comic book origin story.
Batman: Heath Ledger
Heath Ledger met with Christopher Nolan to discuss possibly playing Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins, but the actor eventually withdrew himself from consideration because he wasn’t a big fan of comic book movies.
Nolan really liked Ledger’s audition and kept him in mind, so when he was making the sequel The Dark Knight, Ledger was his first choice to play the Joker and ended up winning a posthumous Oscar for it.
Scarecrow: Christopher Eccleston
Former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston has appeared in a few big-budget blockbusters, like G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, but he’s often been shafted with bad material, like the one-note villain Malekith the Accursed in Thor: The Dark World, widely regarded to be the MCU’s weakest entry.
Eccleston was one of the actors under consideration for the role of the Scarecrow in Batman Begins but ultimately didn’t land the job. While Cillian Murphy ended up bringing plenty of nuance to the role, Eccleston undoubtedly would’ve done a great job with it, too.
Batman: Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher was one of the actors considered to play Bruce Wayne. Having mostly starred in romcoms like What Happens in Vegas, Kutcher doesn’t have much experience with action-oriented roles. Still, some studio executives thought he was the best guy to play Batman in the reboot and pushed for him to be cast.
However, Nolan wasn’t so hot on Kutcher playing his grounded version of Wayne, and he managed to persuade the studio to drop him from consideration.
Scarecrow: Jeremy Davies
The producers of Batman Begins considered casting Jeremy Davies as the Scarecrow. His most famous film role was in Saving Private Ryan, but Davies has made a name for himself in other mediums.
On TV, he played Daniel Faraday in Lost and Dickie Bennett in Justified. In the gaming community, he’s best known as the Norse god Baldur from 2018’s God of War.
Batman: Josh Hartnett
Before Christian Bale was cast to play Batman, the studio approached Josh Hartnett about playing the part. However, the actor turned down their offer, because he wasn’t interested in playing a superhero at that point in his career.
Hartnett’s highest-profile work in recent years has been playing the lead role in Showtime’s Penny Dreadful, for which he received a nomination for a Fangoria Chainsaw Award.
Scarecrow: Ewan McGregor
Ewan McGregor was considered to play Jonathan Crane before Cillian Murphy was cast. He ended up playing a different sadistic criminal from the streets of Gotham, gangland boss Black Mask, alongside Margot Robbie in Birds of Prey.
Even before taking his role in Birds of Prey, McGregor was no stranger to blockbusters with multi-movie commitments, having played Obi-Wan Kenobi in George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Batman: Henry Cavill
Henry Cavill did a screen test for the role of Bruce Wayne when Batman Begins was in development. This was around the same time that the producers of the James Bond franchise were working on Casino Royale and narrowed their casting choices for 007 down to Cavill and Daniel Craig. So, Cavill lost out on two major roles in quick succession, which must’ve been a bummer.
It all worked out in the end, of course, as Zack Snyder would later cast Cavill to play the other flagship DC Comics hero, Superman, in Man of Steel. And on top of that, he’s found massive success with Netflix’s The Witcher.
Scarecrow: Marilyn Manson
It’s apt that the producers of Batman Begins considered metal artist Marilyn Manson for the role of the Scarecrow because fear is his greatest asset. He created his stage name by combining the first name of a Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe and the last name of famous serial killer Charles Manson.
While Manson is definitely better-known for his music than his acting, he has played roles in some high-profile works, like David Lynch’s Lost Highway and FX’s Sons of Anarchy.
Batman: Cillian Murphy
Interestingly, Cillian Murphy was up for the part of Bruce Wayne before he was cast to play the Scarecrow. He even did a screen test for Wayne before being considered for his enemy. Murphy would go on to work with Christopher Nolan on the rest of The Dark Knight trilogy, as well as Inception and Dunkirk.
Eion Bailey, David Boreanaz, Billy Crudup, Hugh Dancy, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Joshua Jackson also did screen tests for the role of Bruce Wayne before Christian Bale was chosen.