Add this to the list of awesome roles that MAN OF STEEL star Henry Cavill missed out on including James Bond in the 007 franchise, Cedric Diggory in the Harry Potter franchise, Batman in the Batman franchise and Superman in an earlier version of the Superman franchise. The crucial difference being, for the others he was rejected, 300 he himself was forced to turn down.
The shoot and prep of 300, Zack Snyder's blood-soaked ode to the Spartan warrior culture, happened in late 2005, coinciding with the time the trials for the latest James Bond were going on which was a two man race down to Henry Cavill and Daniel Craig. Cavill could either stay in the race for Bond, or do 300. He chose the later which was a race that he then lost!
Zack Snyder's spectacular epic, 300 (IMHO still his best film), made super-stars out of himself and Gerard Butler. Cavill who has struggled with breaking out throughout his career might have broken out much earlier had he done 300 but it is understandable that he held out for Bond, which he has professed to be his life long desire to play. (Fingers crossed for him.)
Thus it seems it was a happy reunion between Snyder and Cavill who finally got to work together on MAN OF STEEL. But as Cavill has shown with IMMORTALS (2011) and again with MAN OF STEEL (2013), he can sculpt an eight pack as good as or even better than the Spartans, so could have easily played one.
What role do you think he would have been up for?
I would think since Leonidas, Captain and Dilios were all older characters, Cavill could have been up for either Astinor or Stelios, the latter of which was the first step for Michael Fassbender to super-stardom.