James McAvoyis no stranger to movie franchises, having played Professor Charles Xavier in fourX-Menprequel films and also Mr. Tumnus inThe Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. However, McAvoy nearly joined two other major properties,Star TrekandHarry Potter.The latter of which would have had him playing the young version of one of cinema’s most iconic villains.
Promoting his latest film,Speak No Evil, on theHappy Sad Confusedpodcast viaThe Playlist, McAvoy revealedhe auditioned for a part inStar Trek. McAvoy, a self-proclaimed big fan ofStar Trek, auditioned for J.J. Abrams’s 2009 reboot but did not get the role he wanted.When he was offered a different part, he turned it down. McAvoy said:
“I came close [to a role]…I can’t tell you who. I got offered something, [but] I didn’t want to do that; I suggested I could do something else. They wanted to camera test me, and I was like, ‘You know what? It’s alright, don’t worry about it.’ [But] not because I wouldn’t, but because I just didn’t think it was right. What I said to J.J. about what I thought the role should be and the kind of actor that should be, they absolutely got but the kind of person I thought, I’m not, isexactlythe person who got it, so it was brilliant, and I loved the new one; I loved J.J.’s films; they’re excellent.”
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By the time McAvoy auditioned forStar Trek,he was already making a name for himself. In addition toThe Chronicles of Narnia, he also had roles in the Academy Award-nominated filmsThe Last King of ScotlandandAtonement. But towards the beginning of his career, McAvoy almost landed a major part in theHarry Potterfranchise.He would have played a young Voldemort in one of the early films.McAvoy says they offered to pay him a lot of money to keep him on retainer, but it would have prevented him from working for nearly a year. McAvoy said:
“I was nearly in Harry Potter, almost, yeah. It was the very first movie, and the [role] was—Tom Riddle, he was in the first one, right? He’s in it for a scene, in a flashback? And they had—I seem to remember it right at the beginning of my career, I auditioned for it, and I think they wanted to put me on a retainer. They offered me something like—it was crazy; I had hardly done any work and myself and— I think ten other actors they wanted to put us on a retainer so they could hold us and keep us to choose later who it would be; it was a really strange thing. And they offered quite a lot of money for me at that time—it was atonof money, it was like 40,000 pounds or something like that, but I wouldn’t have been allowed to doanywork for about seven months, I think.”
How Star Trek & Harry Potter Would Be Different With McAvoy
When it comes toStar Trek, given that McAvoy is Scottish, the likely assumption would be that he was offered the role of Montgomery “Scotty” Scott, played by Simon Pegg. McAvoy could have auditioned for several roles, as it is easy to see him as either Spock or Hank “Bones” McCoy. While Chris Pine has been an incredible Captain Kirk,McAvoy would have been an exciting pick to play the iconic Starfleet Captain.Most interestingly, given that McAvoy plays a young Professor X in theX-Menmovies, originally played byThe Next Generationactor Patrick Stewart, McAvoy has been a fan-favorite to play the role of ayoung Jean Luc-Picard.
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McAvoy as Voldemort inHarry Potterwould have been interesting, but likely onlya minor role. It is unclear if the part McAvoy is referring to is the brief appearance by Tom Riddle inThe Sorcerer’s Stone, with Richard Bremmer playing the cloaked figure in the flashback, or the one inHarry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, played by actor Christian Coulson. Had McAvoy taken either role, he would unlikely have stayed on, asthe series producers wanted a big name for Voldemort and eventually went with Ralph Fiennes.McAvoy’s involvement inHarry Potterwould end up being more of a fun easter egg for fans of the actor than a substantial part of his career.
