17 TV Shows That Almost Had Very Different A-List Actors In Their Casts

For many of us, there is no greater comfort than rewatching our favourite shows – to the point that those familiar characters can begin to feel like close friends.

Because of this, it can be near impossible to imagine anyone else but the line-up of actors we know and love appearing in these series.

However, what you might not know, no matter how many times you have binge-watched them, is that some of the most popular shows in TV history almost had a very different cast.

With that in mind, we’ve rounded up 17 hit shows that almost had completely different A-list stars in their casts…

It sometimes felt like every actor in the world was in Game Of Thrones, but there are a few famous faces who didn’t make the cut, after auditioning for roles in the fantasy drama.

In 2021, Elizabeth Olsen told The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast that she auditioned for the part of Daenerys in Game Of Thrones, but didn’t get a callback for the role which made Emilia Clarke a global household name.

“I auditioned for, like, the assistant to the casting director in a small room in New York with just a camera on me and them reading the script,” she claimed. “I was doing the Khaleesi speech when she comes out of the fire. It was awful.”

Another A-lister who claims they “blew” their Game Of Thrones was Mahershala Ali. The two-time Oscar winner auditioned for the part of Xaro Xhoan Daxos, a merchant in Qarth, during season two, telling Jimmy Kimmel that it was the “worst audition of his life”.

Outlander star Sam Heughan, meanwhile, had multiple chances to appear on Game Of Thrones, auditioning to play Loras Tyrell, Renly Baratheon and several members of the Night’s Watch, but never landing any of them.

“I’d always get so close! I’d be like, ‘Guys, just give me a sword!’,” he told Vulture in 2014, lamenting: “Everyone was going in for those parts.”

Lastly, Millie Bobby Brown’s failure to land the role of Lyanna Mormont in the fantasy drama almost led her to quitting acting before her career had even taken off.

“I was auditioning for commercials, anything really,” the British star told Jimmy Kimmel in 2020. “I then auditioned for Game Of Thrones and I got a no for that. That’s kind of when I was like, ‘Oh, this is really difficult’.”

The role of Lyanna eventually went to Bella Ramsey, who now stars in The Last Of Us (and will next be seen in the upcoming season of The Celebrity Traitors).

Despite being one of the biggest shows of the 21st century, a long list of other actors also turned down roles in Game Of Thrones.

Hunger Games actor Sam Claflin dropped out of the audition process for Jon Snow after being offered a major movie role.

Despite the show’s success, he doesn’t regret this decision, telling Cinema Blend: “I like getting into things like that [as a viewer] and not being a part, because I always find it’s very jarring if I was part of it. But I’m a big fan.”

Gillian Anderson also rejected an unspecified role in the show, telling the Daily Mail back in 2013: “If I am going to be spending that amount of time working on something, I would rather be working with a director like Martin Scorsese.”

Succession actor Brian Cox turned down the role of Robert Baratheon, complaining in 2016 to Vodzilla that the show wouldn’t pay him enough, a complaint he later regretted.

“Now they have more money,” he continued. “And I was silly. I was silly, it was silly, because I’m a complete addict now.”

In his memoir, Putting The Rabbit In The Hat, Brian wrote: “There’s always been a tendency of American productions to treat British actors differently from American actors,” he said. “In other words, to get them cheap.”

The Crown star Dominic West was another big name who rejected a role in the fantasy show, admitting he was put off by the prospect of spending six months shooting in Iceland.

Many fans believe the actor was referring to the role of Mance Rayder, the King Beyond the Wall, which eventually went to Ciarán Hinds.

“It was a lovely part, a good part. I’m going to regret it,” he told HuffPost in 2012. “My problem is, I’ve got four kids, and at the moment, I’m reluctant to be away from home for a long time.”

Lily Allen quite rightly turned down the role of playing Yara Greyjoy, alongside her real-life brother Alfie Allen, who starred as Theon Greyjoy.

“They asked me if I’d be interested in playing Theon’s sister,” Lily claimed during a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session.

“I felt uncomfortable because I would have had to go on a horse and he would have touched me up and shit. Once they told me what was entailed, I said, ‘no thanks’.”

Gossip Girl creator Josh Schwartz has revealed that a then-16-year-old Jennifer Lawrence auditioned to play Serena van der Woodsen, the role which launched Blake Lively to fame.

“We did not realise this at the time, but Jennifer really wanted to play Serena and auditioned,” he told Vulture in 2018.

“This story came to us secondhand – but we were told she definitely auditioned and was bummed to not get it.”

Lily Collins auditioned for the show, too, with the hopes of playing Taylor Momsen’s character, Jenny.

She recalled to Glamour: “I was about 17 or 18 years old at the time. I remember driving onto the lot and going, ‘Oh my God. This is surreal’,

“It was one of those OMG moments,” she laughed. “Whether or not I got it, I knew I could say I screen tested on the lot and one day I want to work at one of these [studios],” the Emily In Paris actor added.

Gossip Girl casting director David Rapaport also told E! that the pilot starred Jessica Jones actor Krysten Ritter and Pitch Perfect star Brittany Snow, and that Dakota Johnson, Rooney Mara and Nina Dobrev all auditioned for the teen drama.

Although Kristen Bell was the top pick to voice Gossip Girl, both Christina Ricci and Selma Blair were “in the mix” as possible candidates, according to the executive producer.

Katie Holmes, James Van Der Beek, Michelle Williams and Joshua Jackson changed the TV landscape forever with their coming-of-age TV drama Dawson’s Creek – but they weren’t the original casting choices.

Creator Kevin Williamson told Entertainment Weekly in 2018 that Selma Blair was his first choice for Joey Potter, before seeing Katie Holmes’ audition.

“I really loved Selma until, of course, I got the infamous videotape from the basement of the Holmes family in Toledo, Ohio,” Kevin said.

“And when that video showed up, it changed my whole life.”

Grey’s Anatomy actor Katherine Heigl also nearly starred in the iconic 90s teen drama, auditioning for the role of Joey Potter, which ultimately went to Michelle Williams.

“She looked slightly older at that time. Even though she was younger, I just think she was more mature,” Kevin explained in the same interview. “She gave a great audition, I remember we were all sort of like, ‘Wow, she’s good.’”

Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Fergurson, Charlie Hunnam and Adam Brody also all auditioned for the show.

It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing Phoebe, Joey, Rachel, Ross, Chandler and Monica in Friends, but the road to those stars being cast was an especially arduous one.

During a 2015 interview with HuffPost, Friends casting director Ellie Kanner opened up about the difficulties of casting an ensemble of six.

MCU actor and director Jon Favreau was one of the many in the running to play Chandler, but turned it down to concentrate on his own career writing and directing.

Two And A Half Men star Jon Cryer also auditioned for Chandler, but his tape never even made it to the show’s creators, getting lost in transit.

Meanwhile, Tea Leoni was the first choice to play Rachel Green, but turned it down to star in another sitcom, The Naked Truth, which aired for three seasons.

30 Rock icon Jane Krakowski also auditioned for the role that eventually became a star-making turn for Jennifer Aniston.

“I, like almost every actor, auditioned for Friends,” the Broadway star told Giuliana Rancic at the 2015 Emmys. “I wish I had gotten that one… I didn’t go very far [in the audition process].”

Before landing her big break on The King of Queens, Leah Remini made it through several rounds of auditions to play Monica.

“I was devastated that I didn’t get it. We all knew it would be a huge hit. We just knew it,” Leah told MediaVillage.

Sex And The City’s own Kristin Davis also told James Corden in 2021 that she was was ”one of like 8,000 young ladies who read for Monica”, but didn’t get the part.

One of the many actors to audition for the role of Joey Tribbiani was Vince Vaughn, as did The Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria, who eventually became known to Friends fans as Phoebe’s boyfriend David.

“I auditioned for Joey, and didn’t get it, and I was like, ‘No, no, I have to go back, I have to try again’,” Hank said during an appearance on The Late, Late Show.

“So, I bulled my way back in for a second time and they were very kind and watched my audition, and then threw me out. Spoiler alert, I didn’t get the role of Joey.”

In the early stages of the casting process, The White Lotus actor Connie Britton was the first choice by play political fixer Olivia Pope in Scandal, until the show’s creator Shonda Rhimes stepped in.

She felt it was important that the role should go to a Black actor, with Kerry Washington eventually landing the part.

Taraji P. Henson has revealed she auditioned to play the character, even though she knew already that Kerry was a better fit for the part.

“When I went in to read for Shonda Rhimes, in my mind I was like, ‘this is Kerry Washington. Why am I even in here?’,” she told Power 105.1′s Angie Martinez.

Bring It On star Gabrielle Union has claimed she was in the final running to play Olivia Pope before Kerry was cast.

“I was one of the last five or 10 to audition,” she said in a 2013 interview with Rolling Out. “When Kerry got it, I congratulated her. Now after each episode, I’m leading the charge, like Gladiators, stand up! I’m obsessed with the show.”

In March 2026, Nicola was asked during a radio interview if there were any “near-miss” roles in her past, befre admitting to having tried out for Netflix’s hit 80s-set series.

“It would be generous to myself to say I narrowly missed out on it,” she claimed. “But I did a first-round audition for Stranger Things.”

Fortunately, the Irish actor is not too bitter she didn’t land the role.

“You know when you watch a show and you go, ‘oh well, thank God I didn’t get that, because I would have been way worse!’,” she joked.

“I don’t think I was anywhere close to being in Stranger Things, but I did audition,” she added.

True Blood creator Alan Ball revealed that Benedict Cumberbatch auditioned to play the lead vampire role of Bill Compton in True Blood.

Speaking in 2018, for the show’s 10th anniversary, Alan also shared that Jessica Chastain read for the part of Sookie.

The characters were eventually portrayed on screen by Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin, who married in real life after appearing on the supernatural show.

Alan also told The Hollywood Reporter: “Jennifer Lawrence read for, in season three, there’s this werepanther girl, and she was great”.

However, it was decided that Jen would be an inappropriate casting choice to play Jason’s girlfriend, given she was only 17 at the time.

In her recent memoir Famesick, Lena Dunham opened up about some of the A-list stars who tried out for roles in Girls, before the show’s central quartet were all cast.

The Emmy winner explained that Wandavision’s Elizabeth Olsen, Fifty Shades Of Grey’s Dakota Johnson, Black Mirror’s Cristin Milioti and comedian Amy Schumer tried out “several times” for her US comedy.

Lena previously wrote in her newsletter that Amy had auditioned for the role of Shoshanna, but “it was clear Amy wasn’t meant to play an innocent Juicy Couture lover obsessed with emoji – even if her Meatpacking District club lingo was the funniest shit I had ever heard”.

“When she left the room, the vibe was very ‘Someone give that lady a show, STAT!’” Lena added.

Jenny Slate who played Hannah’s high school nemesis Tally Schifrin in the series, was originally up for the role of uptight Marnie, a role Allison Williams was cast in.

“At the time the show Girls was being cast, and I went in a bunch of times for the role of Marnie,” she said on the Las Culturistas podcast.

It wasn’t just Game Of Thrones that Gillian Anderson turned down – she also rejected the role of Lady Cora in Downton Abbey.

Back in 2012, she told TV Guide that she hoped her work in the TV adaptation of Great Expectations would be embraced “with the same love that flowed toward Downton Abbey”.

“I was actually offered a part in Downton,” she then added, referring to the role which would eventually be taken on my Elizabeth McGovern.

When the short-lived Friends spin-off Joey was cancelled, Matt LeBlanc had the opportunity to return to the sitcom world in another show that became a smash hit.

Speaking to USA Today, Matt explained that the script for Modern Family wound up on his desk, with an offer to play the role of the dorky patriarch Phil Dunphy.

“I remember reading it thinking, ‘this is a really good script, [but] I’m not the guy for this’,” he said. “I’d be doing the project an injustice to take this.”

The role, of course, went to Ty Burrell, who it’s hard to argue is perfect for the part.

Judy Greer also revealed she was asked to audition for Phil’s wife, Claire, but didn’t want to play a character with children.

“I was really torn about it, but I ended up obviously not,” the told the Dinner’s On Me podcast, hosted by Modern Family’s own Jesse Tyler Ferguson.

“Who knows if I would have even gotten it anyway? I was just like, ‘I don’t know if I want to be America’s mom yet’.”

Before Bryan Cranston was cast as Walter White, the creators of the show had John Cusack and Mathew Broderick on their initial lists to play the science teacher turned drug kingpin.

The US broadcaster AMC and the show’s creator Vince Gilligan have both claimed these actors were sent scripts, although John Cusack insisted on social media in 2013 that he would never have turned down the role of Walter, branding the suggestion “crazy”.

It looks like every young woman in 90s Hollywood was being eyed to play the lead role in Buffy The Vampire Slayer before Sarah Michele Gellar landed the gig.

Before being cast in her breakout role on Dawson’s Creek, Katie Holmes was offered the part of Buffy Summers in the iconic supernatural drama, but she decided to finish high school instead.

Selma Blair – who we know now almost appeared in Dawson’s Creek herself – revealed on Instagram in 2018 that she had also auditioned to play the vampire slayer but “didn’t even come close”.

Natasha Lyonne has claimed she was sent scripts for both Buffy and Dawson’s Creek after her performance in Everyone Says I Love You, but “did not want to be committed when I was 16 years old” to a demanding TV schedule.

It wasn’t just Buffy who actors were lining up to play, either.

Yellowjackets actor Melanie Lynskey told Shut Up Evan that she was in the running to star as Willow, a role ultimately played by Alyson Hannigan.

Years before he was an A-lister and football club owner, Ryan Reynolds turned down playing Xanders, a role made famous by the late Nicholas Brendon.

“My biggest concern was that I didn’t want to play a guy in high school,” Ryan explained to the Toronto Star in 2008.

“I had just come out of high school, and it was fucking awful.”

Beetlejuice actor Michael Keaton was originally set to play Jack Shepherd on Lost but, rather unusually, didn’t like the fact that the character would live for so long.

You see, Jack was originally going to be killed off in the first episode as a way to subvert audience’s expectations, something that attracted the Birdman star to the project.

“I think what happened was – and I’ve never really talked to [Lost co-creator J.J. Abrams] about this – he thought better of [the twist of Jack dying in the pilot],” he explained during a 2017 appearance on The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast. “Or the studio said ’That ain’t gonna happen’.

“And then there was kind of a half a conversation, like, ‘Well, do you have any more interest?’…”

You can probably guess that he didn’t, which is Matthew Fox came to play the character in all six seasons of Lost.

Several A-listers almost starred in Grey’s Anatomy before the long-running medical drama landed on our screens, most notably Rob Lowe, who passed on playing Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd.

Rob stands by saying no to that iconic role, telling E! about he silver linings of his choice.

“Me in that part isn’t as interesting as Patrick in that part,” he insisted. “If it’d been me, they wouldn’t have called me ‘McDreamy,’ they would have called me Rob Lowe’.”

“Had I done Grey’s, I wouldn’t have been in Parks and Recreation. That alone for me is enough,” he added.

Joshua Jackson was also almost Owen Hunt on Grey’s before Kevin McKidd was brought in.

The Dawson’s Creek actor originally said yes to the role until the 2008 Writer’s Strike led to disruption, and Joshua chose to instead appear in Fringe.

Chris Pine almost played Ryan Atwood in The O.C. but lost the role to Ben McKenzie.

Appearing on an episode of Josh Horowitz’s podcast Happy Sad Confused, Chris claimed: “I had awful skin as a teenager and then when I came after college, my skin started breaking out again.”

In TV critic Alan Sepinwall’s 2023 book Welcome to the O.C.: The Oral History, casting director Patrick Rush confirmed that while Chris was “really good” in his audition, he “was at the age where he was experiencing really bad skin problems”, which put him out of the running.

Patrick wrote: “It was at that point where it looked insurmountable. And as a kid who grew up with horrible skin, it just broke my heart. But Chris Pine’s fine now.”

Hugh Grant was actually one of producers’ top choices to replace Charlie Sheen on Two And A Half Men in 2011.

Years later, the English actor revealed that he had been offered a “stratospheric” amount of money to join the sitcom, but had reservations when he met with the creative team.

“They didn’t have a script or a new character,” Hugh told Howard Stern in 2016. “They just said, ‘Trust us, we’ll create one’.”

“I said, ‘well, you’re obviously brilliantly talented because I like that show’ and they make brilliant TV shows, but I said I’m I’m too scared to sign up without a script,” he claimed.

Ashton Kutcher would eventually take on a role within Two And A Half Men, which ran for four further seasons after Charlie’s infamous exit.

Sarah Jessica Parker is perfect as Carrie, but lots of other actors had the opportunity to walk in her Manolos.

Riverdale’s Mädchen Amick was reportedly to have first been offered the role by the show’s creator, Darren Star.

In that version, the show would have been a spin-off vehicle for Carrie Fairchild, the character she played in Central Park West. However, Mädchen is said to have turned down the role to prioritise her family.

Desperate Housewives actor Dana Delany was also offered the role of Carrie, but apparently passed because she felt she was too closely associated with sex-related shows after appearing in Nude Girls and Exit To Eden.

House actor Lisa Edelstein also auditioned for Carrie and was even considered an alternate for if Sarah Jessica left the project.

Lisa told Access Hollywood: “I was either going to do it or not. It all depended on whether she said yes. My contract was complete. I was waiting.”

Kristin Davis also originally auditioned to play Carrie before being cast as uptight Charlotte York.

Meanwhile, Pose star Sandra Bernhard once told Howard Stern that she was asked if she was interested in playing Miranda Hobbes, but passed on it because she didn’t rate the original script, which she branded “terrible”.

Chris Noth wasn’t the first person considered to play Mr Big, either. In fact, Darren Star once revealed that Alec Baldwin was his first thought for the role, until he met Chris in person “and thought he was perfect”.

Darren Star has also revealed that the role of Aidan Shaw nearly went to Aidan Quinn rather than John Corbett, but the star they wanted was unavailable.

“We kept ‘Aidan’ because we loved the name,” he noted.