Leonardo DiCaprio is the actor of our generation. Known for his early days as a '90s heartthrob in Titanic and Romeo + Juliet, to taking more serious, dramatic work as an adult star, like Django Unchained and The Revenant. He’s one of the last movie stars who can sell a flick with just his name, and any director would kill to work with the movie star. It’s no surprise that DiCaprio has been offered almost every leading man role in Hollywood. Apparently that includes different roles within the world of Batman over the years, but as history will tell you, this never ended up happening.
Warner Bros. Wanted Leonardo DiCaprio To Play The Riddler In The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Knight was a major hit for the studio. Christopher Nolan’s grittier, more adult take on the Batman source material was something new and inventive. The film was being taken seriously like a prestige drama, and even won Heath Ledger an Oscar for his performance as the Joker. Apparently after they screened the movie, a Warner Bros. executive wanted DiCaprio in the follow up film. The exec approached David Goyer, a writer who worked on The Dark Knight trilogy about the prospect. Goyer recounted on the Happy, Sad, Confused podcast:
After The Dark Knight, the head of Warner Bros. at the premiere said, ‘You got to do the Riddler. Leo as The Riddler. You got to tell Chris [Nolan], Leo as The Riddler.’ And that’s not the way we work, taking nothing away from him.
While WB may have been keen on casting DiCaprio as the kooky villain character for the third Dark Knight film, this wasn’t the direction Nolan and the creative team wanted to pursue. Instead, they cast Nolan’s frequent collaborator Tom Hardy as Bane, which was a darker villain that fit tonally within the Batman franchise at the time. Based on context, it seems like Nolan didn’t entertain this idea for too long, but it does make me wonder about what a Leonardo DiCaprio Riddler character would look like.
Leonardo DiCaprio as Robin in Batman Forever
Way back before DiCaprio was Jack in Titanic, he was a buzzy young actor working on small movies like What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, which earned him his first Oscar nomination. He was incredibly talented, even early in his career, and it seems like Warner Bros. noticed. According to a 2015 interview with ShortList, DiCaprio revealed he had meetings with director Joel Schumacher to play Robin in 1995’s Batman Forever alongside Val Kilmer’s Batman. He said:
I never screen-tested. I had a meeting with Joel Schumacher. It was just one meeting and, no, I didn’t end up doing it.
At the time, this would’ve been a massive opportunity for DiCaprio, who was starting to break in as one of Hollywood’s most promising actors. But while most actors would’ve jumped at the opportunity to be in such a big movie, The Wolf of Wall Street star wasn’t interested, stating he didn’t think he was ready for it at the time. He said about not wanting the role:
Er, I don’t think I did, no (laughs). As I recall I took the meeting, but didn’t want to play the role. Joel Schumacher is a very talented director but I don’t think I was ready for anything like that.
The role ended up going to Chris O’Donnell, another promising young '90s star. It seems like Schumacher saw a lot of actors for the part, as Matt Damon also admitted to auditioning to play Robin. Batman Forever isn’t as well remembered as something like The Dark Knight trilogy, so DiCaprio likely made the right decision by turning it down. He doesn’t seem to have any interest in joining the superhero realm in general, as he urged Timotheé Chalamet against taking part in franchise films like Batman. Despite Warner Bros. many attempts, seeing DiCaprio wear a cape feels pretty unlikely.
You won’t see him in a Batman movie, but you can see Leonardo DiCaprio in his latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, which hits theaters on October 20th. Batman fans can also dream of what could have been by revisiting The Dark Knight Trilogy and Batman Forever, which are all available for Max subscribers.
