After missing out on James Bond after getting to the final two for Casino Royale, flunking a screentest for the abandoned Superman: Flyby before being repeatedly sidelined when he did land the role a decade later, hedging his bets on 007 and avoiding 300 as a result, prior to exiting The Witcher at the height of its popularity, Henry Cavill has endured a fairly bad run of luck throughout his career.
That being said, Nicholas Hoult may have come right in and snatched the crown off his head after The Great was canceled by Hulu following three acclaimed seasons, because the X-Men veteran was initially supposed to play the villain in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning after being head-hunted by Tom Cruise himself, only to drop out due to scheduling conflicts with the TV series that no longer exists.
When you add that to his recent high-profile auditions for both Batman and Superman that went nowhere – never mind the fact Cavill did actually manage to go toe-to-toe with Cruise’s Ethan Hunt in Fallout – then you’d have to say Hoult has edged ever so slightly ahead in the misfortune stakes.
He’d already been rejected for a part in Top Gun: Maverick, too, so there’s clearly some kind of malevolent force working against Hoult, and we haven’t even brought up the fact Renfield bombed incredibly hard earlier this year, either. The guy just can’t seem to catch a break when it comes to blockbusters where he isn’t playing a mutant, but maybe his day will come eventually after so many setbacks.