Chris Pratt may be inseparable from Star-Lord these days, but his road into the MCU started with a completely different Marvel hero.
Long before he was flying around the galaxy with a talking raccoon and a sentient tree, Pratt auditioned to play Steve Rogers in Captain America: The First Avenger.
He obviously didn’t get the part, but the audition made enough of an impression on Marvel Studios casting director Sarah Halley Finn that she remembered him when another Marvel role came along.
Finn, whose MCU casting work has included Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr., Chadwick Boseman, and many others, recently recalled Pratt’s Captain America audition during an SDCC appearance on The Brandon Davis Show.
At the time, Pratt was best known for playing the lovable and ridiculous Andy Dwyer on Parks and Recreation, but his Steve Rogers reading showed Finn something completely different.
“He did a speech which was not comedic at all, it was kind of a rallying cry,” Finn said. “I don’t think this particular [speech] ended up in [Captain America: The First Avenger].
“He’s trying to inspire and encourage somebody to move forward with courage. It was really simple, it was very heartfelt. There was just that touch of nobility you want to see in your heroes… after that audition, I was paying attention.”
Pratt wasn’t going to become Captain America, but Finn saw qualities in the actor that could work somewhere else in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
When Guardians of the Galaxy came around, Finn became convinced Pratt should audition for Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord. Getting him into the room wasn’t exactly easy. Pratt didn’t want to audition, and James Gunn wasn’t interested in seeing him because he didn’t think the actor was right for the role.
Finn kept pushing anyway. “I was stuck on him,” Finn said. “He didn’t want to audition for that at all… I was so persistent to the point of being annoying. Even at that point, James Gunn was convinced he wasn’t right and didn’t want to see him.”
That persistence worked out pretty damn well. Pratt ultimately landed Star-Lord and led three Guardians of the Galaxy movies while also appearing in multiple Avengers films and other MCU projects.
It’s funny to think that one of Marvel’s most recognizable cosmic heroes might not have happened if Finn hadn’t pushed so hard for Pratt.
Chris Evans, of course, ultimately became Steve Rogers and went on to define Captain America for the MCU. Pratt also wasn’t the only familiar Marvel name who took a shot at the role.
Wilson Bethel, who later became Bullseye in Daredevil, auditioned for Captain America, as did John Krasinski, who eventually played a multiverse version of Reed Richards in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Wyatt Russell, who would join the MCU as John Walker, was also considered, along with Sebastian Stan, who instead landed the role of Bucky Barnes and became one of the franchise’s longest-running characters.
Marvel’s casting history is full of these strange alternate paths, but Pratt’s is especially fun as he eventually ended up playing a character that fit him far better.
Sometimes losing the superhero role you wanted is exactly how you land the one you were meant to play.
