Oppenheimer had a loaded cast, and Glen Powell was nearly in it. Despite not appearing in the Best Picture-winning epic, Powell still hopes to work with Christopher Nolan one day.
In an interview with GQ, Powell revealed that he was in the running to play Ernest Lawrence. The role ultimately went to Penny Dreadful star Josh Hartnett. He told the outlet that he missed out on the role “by a slim margin.”
However, Powell has stayed in touch with Christopher Nolan. And he does hope to work with him sometime soon. To be fair, Powell did have a small role in Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises.
Coming up, Powell will star in Twisters, a standalone sequel to Twister. According to his GQ interview, Powell is co-creating Captain Planet, a project Leonardo DiCaprio is producing. While he hasn't made any solid plans with Nolan, Powell also had a “casual” meeting with Edgar Wright scheduled for after his interview with the outlet.
What is Oppenheimer?
Oppenheimer is Christopher Nolan's latest historical epic. It depicted the titular physicist's part in the Manhattan Project and the aftermath of the creation of the first nuclear weapons.
Cillian Murphy starred in the film as J. Robert Oppenheimer. For his performance, Murphy won his first Oscar. Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon, and Florence Pugh also starred in the film.
Oppenheimer had a star-studded ensemble assembled by Nolan. Josh Hartnett, Rami Malek, Benny Safdie, and Kenneth Branagh are just a few of the names sprinkled throughout the film.
At the Oscars, Oppenheimer led all 2023 nominees with 13 nominations. It won seven awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Nolan), Best Actor (Murphy), and Best Supporting Actor (Downey Jr.).
Glen Powell, Batman?
Recently, despite his rising profile, Powell doesn't seem anxious to join any major franchises. He recently revealed that he turned down a role in Jurassic World 4. If he was to play a superhero, Powell would want to play Batman with a “wild” take on the character.
“I was always a Batman guy,” Powell told GQ. “I would have a wild take on Batman. It definitely would not be like a Matt Reeves tone — it'd probably be closer to [Michael] Keaton.”
Currently, Robert Pattinson serves as DC's live-action Batman. Ben Affleck played the role in the DCEU. A Batman for James Gunn's new DCU regime hasn't been named — perhaps Powell has effectively thrown his name into the hat with these comments.
Glen Powell is one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood. He has been acting for years, making his film debut in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. He also had roles in Fast Food Nation, his first collaboration with Richard Linklater, The Dark Knight Rises, The Expendables 3, Ride Along 2, and Hidden Figures.
In 2022, Powell starred in Linklater's Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood. The next year, Powell teamed with Linklater again to co-write, produce, and star in Hit Man from the Before Sunrise director.
His breakthrough came in Scream Queens — Powell starred in the first season of the series. He also starred in Top Gun: Maverick, which put him on the mainstream map, and Devotion in 2022. Powell starred alongside Sydney Sweeney in Anyone But You in late 2023, which was a box office hit for the rom-com genre after grossing over $200 million.
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