In the world of TV, casting is everything. These are the faces that pop up in our homes, week in and week out, that form an integral part of much-anticipated instalments or binge-watched shows, becoming familiar and potentially beloved characters – so getting it right really matters.
It’s wild to imagine how different our favourite shows would be with just a few minor tweaks to their ensembles. With that in mind, we run down some of the most mind-blowing near-misses when it comes to casting, with some very famous faces in the mix.
ER (1994-2009)
Noah Wyle nearly missed out on the role of Dr John Carter
22-year-old Noah Wyle was waiting tables when he won the plum role of Dr John Carter on NBC’s ER, but it could so easily have gone another way. Speaking to Jonathon Buckley on the A Lot More podcast earlier this year, executive producer John Wells admitted that there was “a wonderful actor, who goes unnamed, and has gone on to do very well, that we thought had the part”, before Wyle came in very late and changed their minds.
It’s safe to say that Wyle’s unnamed rival wasn’t wise-cracker Sam Rockwell, who told Entertainment Tonight in 2025 that he auditioned for the role of Carter too, but that it did not go well. “I came in with a lab coat and a hypodermic, but not the needle part. Just the plastic part. I thought I nailed it,” he said, before adding: “They thought I was nuts. It’s almost like I brought a gun into the audition. Anyway, I did not get the job.”
What happened next: It’s hard to imagine ER without Noah Wyle, while the knock-on effect is that recent TV triumph The Pitt is unlikely to have happened either, as it represents a reunion of Wyle, creator R Scott Gemmill and Wells, collaborators from the previous show. Rockwell’s humiliating audition doesn’t seem to have harmed his own career; he went on to win a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and was Emmy-nominated for his roles in Fosse/Verdon and The White Lotus.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
Natasha Lyonne could have been Buffy Summers
Interviewed alongside her American Pie co-stars Alyson Hannigan and Tara Reid by Howard Stern, as part of that film’s promotional tour, Natasha Lyonne confirmed that she was the original choice for the titular role in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and turned it down, to the visible astonishment of Buffy star Hannigan.
Lyonne said: “When The WB first started they asked me to do any of the shows, so Dawson’s Creek and Buffy,” going on to say: “I was 16 and I told them the only thing I wanted to do was some sort of Carol Burnett sketch show.”
What happened next: The role of Buffy would make Sarah Michelle Gellar a small-screen superstar and scream queen, with her peppy and sardonic turn the stuff of TV gold. It’s hard to image Lyonne pulling it off as well. The sardonic side sure, but peppy?
Lyonne’s youthful success was followed by some legal, health and addiction issues. However, she got back on her feet and is now a major star on her own terms, sporting her own very distinctive shtick. Lyonne would come back into the spotlight as a standout supporting player in Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black, before creating and starring in Russian Doll for the streamer, and recently enjoying success in popular Peacock series Poker Face.
Melanie Lynskey could have been Willow Rosenberg
The aforementioned Alyson Hannigan would win the role of Willow in in the show, but it could have been Kiwi actress Melanie Lynskey, known at the time for her role in Heavenly Creatures alongside Kate Winslet. As she told Shut Up Evan in 2023, Lynskey was discouraged by her old-school agent, who thought TV was for “has-beens”. Lynskey had dinner with Joss Whedon and couldn’t recall whether she was actually offered the role, or just asked to read for it, but remembers that, she “just wasn’t super into it at the time”.
The pair stayed in touch and she was asked back once they decided to replace the actress from the unaired pilot (played by Riff Regan), at which point Lynskey was keen. However, after apparently being told, “they didn’t like what you were wearing,” she found out she hadn’t got it.
What happened next: As Lynskey says herself, “Alyson Hannigan got it, who was absolutely wonderful and all was as it should have been.” The versatile Lynskey would have undoubtedly nailed it, but she would go on to have a great career anyway, balancing film and TV, including the likes of Yellowjackets, The Last of Us, and cult favourite I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore. Hannigan followed Buffy with sitcom success in How I Met Your Mother, but has largely been out of the spotlight since.
Sex and the City (1998-2004)
Mädchen Amick or Dana Delany could have been Carrie Bradshaw
In 2019, during an interview on Live with Kelly and Ryan, Twin Peaks star Mädchen Amick told the pair how she played a columnist called Carrie Fairchild in short-lived Darren Star soap opera Central Park West from 1995-96, which she described as “the precursor to Sex and the City”. The intention was for her character to be “spun off to be Sex and the City”, with Amick recalling: “I got the phone call and I got the offer but Central Park West had been hard for me to do anyway, because my babies were little, they were four and five, and I turned it down,” saying with a laugh and a sigh: “And then it became Sex and the City.”
Dana Delany was someone else who was offered the role of Carrie early on, telling NBC’s Today show in 2015: “It wasn’t even a script yet. Darren Star was a friend of mine and he said I’m doing this thing.” But she wasn’t keen, admitting: “I had just done so many movies about sex, I said I can’t do another one. I can’t. Now I’d be like, yes!”
What happened next: Amick has said: “It was Sex and the City because of Sarah Jessica Parker. She killed it. That was her moment. That was her show.” And it’s hard to argue with that. Neither Amick nor Delany would experience SJP levels of fame, but Amick would return for the Twin Peaks revival in 2017 and appear in successful drama series Riverdale, while Delany is probably best known for her role in Desperate Housewives.
Incidentally, in 2016 Darren Star told Entertainment Weekly that Alec Baldwin was top of his wish-list for Mr Big, before Law & Order’s Chris Noth won him over. Meanwhile, Aidan Quinn was Star’s preference for Big’s rival for Carrie’s affections, Aidan. When Quinn wasn’t available, Northern Exposure’s John Corbett was offered the role. But “we kept Aidan,” Star said, “because we loved the name.”
The Sopranos (1999-2007)
Anthony LaPaglia could have been Tony Soprano
One actor who was under serious consideration for one of the all-time great television roles is Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia. LaPaglia spoke to the Santa Monica Mirror in 2007 about being offered the opportunity to play Tony Soprano, telling them that after reading The Sopranos pilot script he met with Chase and they “talked for a while and kind of agreed to move forward”.
However, the actor went on to say that, “the more we talked, the more we realised we weren’t on the same page. I had a different idea for the character than he had, as I saw him a bit more urbane.” When LaPaglia was offered a role in a Broadway production of A View from the Bridge, he chose to do the play.
What happened next: After seeing the show, LaPaglia admitted that Chase knew what he was doing with the character, saying: “He was right. I was wrong.” LaPaglia would win a Tony Award for the aforementioned play and would go on to become a major TV star in Without a Trace. The role of Tony Soprano would be unforgettably, and almost certainly unimprovably, played by the late, great James Gandolfini, who won three Emmys for the part. As good as LaPaglia is, it’s hard to imagine him having the same kind of presence.
Ray Liotta could have been Ralph Cifaretto
In an interview on Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2021, Ray Liotta put to bed the long-standing rumour that he was offered the role of Tony, saying that the part Sopranos creator David Chase actually pursued him for was the volatile Ralph Cifaretto, who first appears in the third season of the show, a role which ultimately went to Joe Pantoliano. During the filming of 2001’s Hannibal, Chase visited Liotta on the set and he turned the offer down, joking: “I made the good move for him (Pantoliano), and the right move for me.”
What happened next: It certainly was a good move for Pantoliano, who won an Emmy for the role in 2003. And perhaps a star as big and intense as Liotta would have been too much for a supporting role on the show. However, Liotta and Chase would end up working together shortly before Liotta’s death in 2022, on 2021’s Sopranos prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark, where Liotta took on the role of twin brothers Aldo and Salvatore Moltisanti.
The Wire (2002-2008)
John C Reilly or Ray Winstone could have been Jimmy McNulty
The Wire is one of the best shows ever and its protagonist, Detective Jimmy McNulty, was a peach of a part, bagged by the then little-known British actor Dominic West. Speaking to BuzzFeed in 2022, David Simon admitted there were two other actors that he and HBO looked at first. They met with Ray Winstone (hot off Sexy Beast) and, though there were concerns about him being able to pull off the Baltimore accent, HBO was keen, although ultimately Winstone turned it down. After that, Simon said that they pivoted to character actor John C Reilly, who also declined the role after his wife refused to move to Baltimore for the duration of the five-year contract.
What happened next: Casting either of those actors would have resulted in very different spins on the character, with West taking the part more into heartthrob territory, and Simon and co almost certainly right about Winstone not being able to handle the accent. The role of McNulty ended up being a launchpad for West on both sides of the pond, with the actor finding continued small-screen success in the likes of The Affair, The Crown and, most recently, War.
The OC (2003-2007)
Chris Pine could have been Ryan Atwood
Star Trek shot him into the stratosphere in 2009, but Chris Pine could have had his big break a few years earlier had he landed leading the role of Ryan Atwood in The OC, which went to Ben McKenzie. Casting director Patrick Rush revealed in 2023 book Welcome to The OC: An Oral History that Pine didn’t get the part due to his acne, with Josh Horowitz confirming this with Pine a year later on his Happy Sad Confused podcast. “The man didn’t have to talk about it. I mean, it’s his prerogative,” Pine said. “I had awful skin as a teenager, and then after college, my skin started breaking out again. I was going out for The OC, which is a teenage melodrama. I can understand that they wanted to have pretty people doing pretty things.” Pine went on to say: “It’s no fun having bad skin… It was one of the most traumatic points of my life, but it is my story, man.”
What happened next: The OC was a big hit initially and propelled its young stars McKenzie, Adam Brody, Mischa Barton and Rachel Bilson into the spotlight. McKenzie was a much better fit for sullen outsider Ryan than Pine would have been and went on to star in well-respected police drama Southland, but it’s Pine that would become a pretty big deal in Hollywood, starring in the Star Trek series, Wonder Woman films and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
Lost (2004-2010)
Michael Keaton could have been Jack Shephard
One casting sliding doors moment that’s hard to get your head around is that Batman and Beetlejuice star Michael Keaton was offered Matthew Fox’s role of Doctor Jack Shephard on the enormously popular sci-fi show Lost, with JJ Abrams keen to work with the actor and attempting to personally persuade him. Keaton told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017 that it was something that piqued his interest when the intention was to throw audiences a curveball by killing off the character in the last 10 minutes of the pilot, saying: “I’m just too lazy. So I thought: Wow, this is pretty good. Then I don’t have to be in the series!” Yet, when the plan changed and Jack became the ongoing series lead, Keaton turned it down, as he wasn’t interested in committing to an open-ended run.
What happened next: A charismatic and unpredictable performer, Keaton would have brought something much more dynamic to the part of Jack than the somewhat bland Fox. Although Lost would end up being a huge TV hit, Keaton underwent a massive cinematic renaissance a decade later when Birdman bagged him an Oscar nod, and he appeared in the likes of Spotlight, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.
House (2004-2012)
Gary Sinise could have been Dr Gregory House
For those growing up in the UK in the 1980s and 1990s, Hugh Laurie’s reinvention as a US leading man came as something as a surprise, given that the Brit had been known primarily for buffoonish comedy in the likes of Blackadder and sketch comedy show A Bit of Fry & Laurie. So it’s not a huge shock that Laurie wasn’t the first choice for protagonist Dr Gregory House in Fox’s famous medical drama.
In an interview for The Town with Matthew Belloni in 2023, former NBC and Fox executive Preston Beckman told Belloni that the original choice for House was actually Forrest Gump star Gary ‘Lieutenant Dan’ Sinise, ahead of the pilot being shot, but that head of casting Marcia Shulman pushed for Laurie.
What happened next: House was an enormous success story, becoming the most watched TV programme in the world in 2018, with Laurie winning two Golden Globes for his work. Sinise would have found an interesting, perhaps more intense spin on the part, but he would secure his own TV success around the same time in CBS show CSI: NY.
The Office (2005-2013)
Bob Odenkirk could have been Michael Scott
Based on the British TV series and adapted by Greg Daniels, mockumentary The Office ran for nine seasons on NBC. Alongside movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which was released in the same year, it made a leading man of Anchorman supporting star Steve Carell in the role of paper company manager Michael Scott. In book The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s, casting director Allison Jones recalls that offers were made to Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman to play Michael, who both turned it down because, back then, “actors like that did not touch TV”.
One future star who was a frontrunner was Bob Odenkirk who, according to NBC Entertainment division president Kevin Reilly, “had an edge to him. His take on Michael was just as funny as Steve’s, but it was darker.” Speaking to the Office Ladies podcast in 2013, Odenkirk would seem to agree, saying that Carell is “better at being genuinely fun”, going on to add: “You just don’t believe me as a purely light character.”
What happened next: Odenkirk would guest star in the season nine episode of The Office, ‘Moving On’ where he plays the character of Mark, a man who reminds Pam of Michael when she interviews for a new job. The actor would then achieve huge success on the Vince Gilligan shows Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, where he was able to employ both his comic instincts and darker side, as he does in films like Nobody and Normal. Carell would find comparable success in shows like The Morning Show and The Four Seasons, as well as the Despicable Me franchise, getting an Oscar nomination for his fine work in Foxcatcher.
Fascinatingly, a behind the scenes compilation from Peacock, titled Casting The Office and available on YouTube, shows Seth Rogen auditioning for Dwight Schrute (eventually played by Rainn Wilson), John Cho and Adam Scott for Jim Halpert (John Krasinski’s character), and Kathryn Hahn trying out for Pam Beesley (Jenna Fischer would win the role).
Grey's Anatomy (2005-)
Rob Lowe could have been Dr Derek Shepherd
He’s had a long and successful career but, speaking to Variety in 2021, Rob Lowe admitted he passed on one of the biggest roles in TV, that of Dr Derek Shepherd on Shonda Rhimes’s hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy, a show that’s still going strong after 20 plus years. The role would famously be won by Patrick Dempsey, something that Lowe thoroughly approves of. “Me in that part isn’t as interesting as Patrick in that part,” he said. “If it’d been me the fans wouldn’t have called me ‘McDreamy’, they would have called me Rob Lowe.”
What happened next: Despite his own doubts, Lowe has the charisma and looks to have made the role work for him, but he went on to reflect that, “Had I done Grey’s, I wouldn’t have been in Parks and Recreation. That alone for me is enough.” Dempsey would play Dr Shepherd from seasons one to 11, before exiting in dramatic fashion, returning in 2020 for a series of guest appearances in season 17.
Mad Men (2007-2015)
Thomas Jane could have been Don Draper
It’s absolutely impossible to imagine anyone other than Jon Hamm in the role of the iconic Don Draper, yet his casting was a huge punt for creator Matthew Weiner and broadcaster AMC. Hamm was blown away by the script, but at the time of its arrival he wasn’t a star. As he admitted to Marc Maron on his WTF podcast in 2017, “I was coming off the worst year I had had professionally. I started literally on the very very bottom. I couldn’t have had less heat on me. Nobody knew who I was. The casting directors didn’t know who I was. I wasn’t on anybody’s list.”
Hamm estimates that he was asked to audition seven times in total and that, by the time he secured the part, he had performed every line of dialogue in the pilot script. Hamm also revealed to Maron who AMC originally wanted for the role, saying: “They went to Thomas Jane for it, and they were told that Thomas Jane does not do television.”
What happened next: Known at the time for his big screen roles in Deep Blue Sea and The Punisher, Jane would indeed end up on TV, most notably on HBO’s Hung and later in science fiction series The Expanse. Surely he must feel some regret that he passed up the opportunity to play one of the greatest television characters of all time, but this one definitely went the right way. As good as Jane can be, it’s hard to imagine him being as slick and cooly enigmatic as Hamm.
Game of Thrones (2011-2019)
Given the size of the Game of Thrones ensemble, and the turnover due to a high death rate, it’s no surprise that a whole host of big name actors have tried out for roles over the years.
Sam Heughan auditioned for seven roles
Getting an A for effort is Scottish star Sam Heughan, who told Vulture in 2014 that he had auditioned for no less than seven roles – including Renly Baratheon (eventually played by Gethin Anthony), Loras Tyrell (Finn Jones would win the part) and various members of the Night’s Watch, recalling: “I’d always get so close! I’d be like, 'Guys, just give me a sword!'”
What happened next: Heughan would end up a huge TV heartthrob after landing the leading male role in Outlander, so that’s alright then.
Elizabeth Olsen could have been Daenerys Targaryen
One that might mess with your head is that Elizabeth Olsen tried out for the pivotal role of Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons who vies for the Iron Throne. Olsen has plenty of the regalness that eventual Daenerys, Emilia Clarke, brings to the role, so it’s actually not hard to image her in it, but apparently her audition really didn’t go well. As she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2021: “I was doing the Khaleesi speech when she comes out of the fire. It was awful. I didn’t get a callback.”
What happened next: It’s safe to say things worked out anyway. Olsen would become a pivotal part of the massive MCU in the role of Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch, something she’s balanced with roles in well-respected, non-franchise fare like His Three Daughters and Eternity. Clarke would grow credibly into the increasingly formidable role of Daenerys over eight seasons, even if her character was eventually taken in a controversial direction.
Mahershala Ali could have been Xaro Xhoan Daxos
Someone else whose audition didn’t go well was Mahershala Ali. When Jimmy Kimmel put it to him in 2017 that he was almost on the show, Ali described a disastrous audition circa 2011 for the five-episode, second season role of powerful merchant Xaro Xhoan Daxos, which ultimately went to Nonso Anozie. Ali went in having done extensive preparations, remembering: “I had this whole thing worked out with this chair, I was working with doing all these power moves and stances and whatnot.” However, during the audition there were two high stools without backs, resulting in a performance that the casting director described as “really stiff”. “It was because I didn’t have a back to my chair,” Ali laughed, joking that his takeaway from the experience was: “Bring your own chair.”
What happened next: Ali would be just fine, going on to win not one but two Best Supporting Actor Oscars for his performances in 2016’s Moonlight and 2018’s Green Book. While the towering Anozie would bring incomparable stature to this relatively small part and has since been seen in the likes of Netflix’s Sweet Tooth and as Moonface in The Magic Faraway Tree.
Millie Bobby Brown could have been Lyanna Mormont
The small but memorable role of Lyanna Mormont thrust a young Bella Ramsey into the spotlight, but it could have been another young star, Millie Bobby Brown. Brown told Preview in 2019 she auditioned for the role, confessing to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show a year later that the rejection, coupled with several others, left her disheartened. It made her think: “Oh, this is really difficult, and I guess I really wanted that role.”
What happened next: Brown went on to tell Fallon that “one of my last kind of goes at this all was this Netflix show called Montauk… and the rest is history.” Montauk would end up as none other than Stranger Things, and Brown is phenomenal as Eleven. Following Game of Thrones, Ramsey would go on to star in another HBO smash, The Last of Us.
Brian Cox could have been Robert Baratheon
Meanwhile, Brian Cox revealed in his 2022 memoir Putting the Rabbit in the Hat that he was offered the role of Robert Baratheon, ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, who appears in the first season and was memorably played by Mark Addy. In 2016, before he revealed which part he was up for, Cox told Vodzilla: “Well, stupidly, I turned it down in the early days because they didn’t pay enough money,” adding: “Now they have more money. And I was silly. I was silly, it was silly, because I’m a complete addict now.”
What happened next: Despite his regret and the gravitas he would have assuredly brought to the character, the octogenarian Cox can console himself with his long and enormously successful career. Perhaps his greatest small or big screen triumph would come nearly a decade after that Game of Thrones decision, when Cox took on the part of monstrous media mogul Logan Roy in another HBO show, Succession.
Girls (2012-2017)
Jenny Slate could have been Marnie Michaels
In her memoir Famesick, Lena Dunham confirmed that the likes of Elizabeth Olsen, Dakota Johnson and Cristin Milioti auditioned for her seminal HBO show Girls (which has just announced its return), but one that stands out is comedian Jenny Slate. In 2022, Slate appeared on the Las Culturistas podcast and mentioned she came close to landing one of the show’s pivotal parts, saying: “I really really wanted to be an actor. When the show Girls was being cast I went in a bunch of times for the role of Marnie and thought maybe I’d get it and didn’t.”
What happened next: Slate may well have been funnier but Allison Williams was pitch perfect as the uptight and deluded Marnie, killing it alongside Ebon Moss-Bachrach as her bandmate and boyfriend Desi in the later seasons, and going on to appear in the films Get Out and M3GAN. Slate would end up appearing in Girls as Hannah’s annoyingly successful frenemy Tally, who appears in season one and five. Slate also won acclaim in indie comedy Obvious Child, has lent her distinctive voice to animated comedies including Zootopia, and is the co-creator and voice star of the Marcel the Shell with Shoes On short film and its Oscar-nommed feature.
Amy Schumer could have been Shoshanna Shapiro
In her Lenny Letter in 2016, Dunham revealed that she first met her pal Amy Schumer when she auditioned for the role of Shoshanna, remembering that “everyone in the room was stunned by the detail and skill of her improv, the wild talent radiating off her”. She went on to say: “It was clear Amy wasn’t meant to play an innocent Juicy Couture lover obsessed with emoji. But when she left the room, the vibe was very: someone give that lady a show.”
What happened next: The role of Shoshanna would go to Zosia Mamet, who delivers such an enjoyably idiosyncratic turn she makes it impossible to conceive of anyone else doing better. As Dunham suggested, stand-up comic Schumer would bag her own Comedy Central sketch show a year or two later, the Emmy-winning Inside Amy Schumer, and would pop up in Girls too, playing the character of Angie.
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