Henry Cavill got his big break thanks to his performance as Clark Kent/Superman in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, but he could have become a widely-known name a few years earlier, had he not lost two roles to Robert Pattinson. The superhero genre has boosted the careers of many actors in the last decade, thanks to connected universes like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and DC’s Extended Universe, which continue exploring the stories of many characters from the most popular comic books.
In 2013, the DCEU kicked off with Man of Steel, which told the origin story of Clark Kent and saw him go against General Zod (Michael Shannon), a Kryptonian general who wanted to transform Earth into a new Krypton he could rule. The movie, along with Cavill’s performance, received mixed reviews, but he reprised his role in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League, which might have been his final role as Superman. Cavill’s DCEU future is now unclear, but this universe will keep expanding with new heroes and versions of previously introduced characters, as is the case of Batman, now played by Robert Pattinson, who funny enough, took two big movie roles away from Cavill before the DCEU began.
Robert Pattinson’s proper debut on the big screen was in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire back in 2005, where he played Cedric Diggory. Although it was a somewhat small role, given that the character was killed by Peter Pettigrew as ordered by Lord Voldemort, it opened many doors for him in the film industry, and just three years later, he was cast as Edward Cullen in Twilight, the cinematic adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s novel. Pattinson played the famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) vampire in three more Twilight movies, which gave his career a major push, although that also meant dealing with fan pressure and more. Henry Cavill could have joined two of the biggest book fandoms there are as he was on the lists to play Cedric Diggory and Edward Cullen, but he wasn’t the right fit.
Henry Cavill auditioned for the part of Cedric Diggory, and Stephenie Meyer wanted him to play Edward Cullen as he was “her perfect Edward”. However, Cavill was never approached by Meyer nor the producers of Twilight, and he was already a bit too old to play a 17-year-old. Meyer lamented losing her perfect Edward and proposed that he played Carlisle, but once more, the offer never reached Cavill. Funny enough, both Cavill and Pattinson are now part of DC Films’ multiverse, but in different ways: as explained above, Cavill played Superman in three movies set within the DCEU, while Pattinson will make his debut as Bruce Wayne in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which isn’t part of the DCEU, instead taking place in a different universe within DC Films’ multiverse.
At some point, there were rumors about Cavill being on the list of actors asked to audition for Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins, but he has denied that. Still, there are a lot of interesting and fun coincidences between Henry Cavill’s and Robert Pattinson’s careers, and it’s equally interesting to imagine how different their careers would have been had Henry Cavill played Cedric Diggory and/or Edward Cullen.
