The Marvel Cinematic Universe could have looked slightly different, Alan Ritchson revealed this week.
The Reacher star said he came close to playing Thor, god of thunder, before Marvel eventually handed the role to Chris Hemsworth.
“I didn’t take it seriously,” Ritchson said of his MCU audition in a new Men’s Health cover story. “I was like, ‘They’ll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.’”
Following his audition, though, the Marvel casting team told Ritchson he hadn’t shown he had “the craft,” and the part eventually went to Hemsworth. Thor first appeared in the character’s titular 2011 film and has been featured in eight Marvel films since then.
The loss plagued Ritchson, who rededicated himself to acting lessons following the defeat.
Several years later, he also lost out on the role of Finnick Odair in 2013’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire after being told that he was too old for the character and that, at 30, he was unlikely to become a star in Hollywood. (Sam Claflin, who eventually booked the role, was 27 at the time.)
Now, over a decade later, Ritchson’s hard work is paying off — he stars as Jack Reacher in Prime Video’s Reacher, which was renewed for season three in December and is currently shooting in Toronto.
“I had about 50 offers the weekend after season one of Reacher,” Ritchson said. “I knew my life had changed.”
Ritchson isn’t the only actor to open up about his first failed attempt to join the MCU. Last year, Chris Pratt shared that he also auditioned for Marvel’s Thor — “not even to be Thor but to be one of the sidekick guys,” he said on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
“I didn’t get a callback,” Pratt continued. “Usually they give you a little bit of feedback, and I remember the casting director goes, ‘Wow. You really made a big choice there.’ Which is code for being like: ‘Hey, dial back the acting there, guy.’”
Like Ritchson, everything also worked out for Pratt, who eventually landed his own role in the MCU as Star-Lord, leader of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise.