Aaron Eckhart gave a memorable (some would say underrated) performance as Harvey Dent in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight back in 2008, but if the director had his druthers, the role would have gone to none other than Matt Damon.
While speaking to the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Damon delved into some of the parts he was forced to pass up over the years, and by far the biggest was the opportunity to play the iconic Batman villain.
“Well, Dark Knight was a small role that I was offered,” said Damon, jokingly downplaying the gig. “There was some other big movie, some big part that I was doing where I was like, ‘Well, I can’t play Harvey Dent... But you gotta be sanguine about it and go, ‘It all works out.’"
Funnily enough, The Dark Knight wasn't Damon's first brush with Batman, as the actor revealed that he was also up for the role of Robin - twice!
The Boy Wonder was originally going to be introduced in Tim Burton's first Batman movie before plans changed, and Damon auditioned for the part. Then, years later he found himself in line to play Dick Grayson in Batman and Robin.
“In 1993, I was one of the final three to play Robin in the George Clooney/Joel Schumacher Batman,” he explained. “Chris O’Donnell had the part, but they were haggling over money, and so the studio was flexing by flying two other people to screen test, but they wanted Chris, but they wanted him for a price. And I knew Chris and I remember calling him and being like, ‘I’ll work for a quarter of what that dude’s [asking for],” he laughed. “I want the job! So I flew in and auditioned for Joel, but they always intended it for Chris.”
So, Damon hasn't had much luck when it comes to Batman, but he has appeared in the MCU as "Fake Loki," and is set to reprise the role for Thor: Love and Thunder. Could a more substantial superhero/villain role be in his future, perhaps?