An eternity of films has come to our eyes over the years. Together they’ve formed the foundations by which good movies are built, given us our most cherished filmmakers and performers, inspired generations to dream, and even just allowed people to simply escape to another world if but only for a couple of hours.

But what if some of the most celebrated movies in cinematic history were different? What if your favorite film of all time’s main star was played by someone else? How different would everything be if just one legend never even came to be legend? These are the questions I found myself asking while bored and on an e-adventure one day; I was surprised at just how many massive characters were almost played by other actors.

After my little adventure I decided that I should share these gems with you, my favorite peoples in the whole word.

Before we begin, I came across some amusing casting close calls that probably wouldn’t have affected the film too much one way or the other, but still worth mention. Like, for instance, did you know that the studios originally wanted greatest actor in the world Matthew McConaughey for Titanic, but James Cameron wanted Leonardo DiCaprio? Did you know that Stuart Townsend was offered and Daniel Day-Lewis turned down the role of Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings trilogy before Viggo Mortensen was brought in? I didn’t either. I rather enjoy thinking about a Day-Lewis Aragorn. Like Hawkeye from Last of the Mohicans, but with a sweet beard, a sword, and an elven chick by his side instead of Madeline Stowe!

OK, that was fun. Now on with the show… Here’s a look at 12 of the craziest casting close-calls in cinematic history.