Henry Cavill Reveals That He Almost Beat Daniel Craig To Be Cast As James Bond

Pablo Cuadra

Henry Cavill has played Superman, Sherlock Holmes, and a rogue agent in Mission Impossible; it seems that adding iconic roles to his portfolio is something of a habit for the British actor. However, fans of the actor have recently learned that he was very close to adding another iconic role to his list which he just missed out on; James Bond.

For almost a decade and a half Daniel Craig has been the face of the James Bond franchise and fans have loved every bit of it but Cavill has recently revealed that this was very close to being his story.

Apparently, Henry Cavill was also among the pool of actors applying for the role of James Bond after Pierce Brosnan departed from the role, and in the end, the choice came down to him and Daniel Craig, and the people in charge ended up choosing Craig over Cavill, who was very young at the time.

Henry recalled the entire adventure while speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, in the following words:

“They told me I was close. They told me it was ultimately down to, and this is what I’ve been told, it was just down to me and Daniel [Craig], and I was the younger option. They obviously went with Daniel and I think it was an amazing choice to go with Daniel. I probably wasn’t ready at the time and I think Daniel did an incredible job over the past movies, so I’m happy they made that choice. It was a fun adventure at the time, and definitely gave me a boost to my career. That was the key element of it.”

With Craig’s tenure as Bond ending recently with No Time To Die, the opportunity is open once again for Cavill to go after the role of 007 but it isn’t likely that he will. Cavill is already tied down with several long-term contracts as he recently confirmed that he is back on board full-time as DCU’s Superman. On the other hand, he is also playing the character of Geralt in The Witcher which will be announcing the release date of its 3rd season anytime soon. Both of these commitments are long term and taking on a third one in the form of Bond would not be wise for the actor.