Joel Edgerton’s Guardians of the Galaxy Failed Audition for Star Lord

Joel Edgerton revealed on The Playlist’s “Bingeworthy” podcast that he failed his audition for Star Lord in “Guardians of the Galaxy” because he just couldn’t nail down the tone writer-director James Gunn was looking for. Chris Pratt ended up getting the career-defining role, which he’d reprise in two “Guardians of the Galaxy” sequels and various other Marvel movies, including “Avengers: Infinity War.”

“Star-Lord’s a good one, actually, because I, unlike Chris [Pratt], didn’t quite sort of understand the tone of it the way he did and the way that those guys did,” Edgerton said on the podcast. “And I wasn’t really sure how I could be a part of that tone. And I truly think that the world is a much better place that I’m not Star-Lord, even if I had the opportunity or I did a good enough audition because it is the way it’s meant to be. And there was never a real conversation that it would have definitely been me. It was just, I had the opportunity to try and audition. I just didn’t quite understand it.”

Marvel and James Gunn saw a ton of actors during the audition process for “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Adam Brody told Variety last year that he also threw his hat into the running to play Star Lord. “I wanted that one,” he said, although he admitted that Pratt was a “better” because he is “bigger, stronger, but tonally, I really dug it.”

Pratt himself nearly passed on auditioning for Star Lord after swearing off Marvel during a period of his career where he kept getting rejected from a string of major Hollywood tentpoles.

“I auditioned for them all. I had a rough run with Marvel,” Pratt told Jimmy Kimmel last year. “I auditioned for ‘Thor,’ but not even to be Thor — but to be one of the sidekick guys, and I didn’t get a callback. Usually they give you a little bit of feedback, and I remember the casting director goes, ‘Wow. You really made a big choice there.’ Which is code for like: ‘Hey, dial back the acting there, guy.’”

“It got to the point where I was never gonna audition for Marvel again,” Pratt continued. “I was like, ‘This is stupid, I’m never gonna be in a Marvel movie.’”

When asked which Marvel movies he auditioned for, Pratt answered: “I mean, all of them. Anything that came out that needed a guy that even remotely looked like me, I auditioned for in some way or another. And I would either submit a tape and they would say ‘No, we don’t need to see him,’ or I would get there and see them, they’d go, ‘No, that’s the last time we need to see you.’”

“And it was not only just Marvel things but there have been a lot of heroic characters in various films… Not DC characters, but like, you know, ‘Star Trek’ or ‘Avatar,’” Pratt continued. “Anything that was like, ‘This guy walks in and he’s got the it-factor.’ Over and over again I was like, ‘Well, I definitely don’t have that it-factor they’re looking for because they don’t even want me to come back.’”

Pratt ended up landing two major franchises: “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Jurassic World.” Edgerton, meanwhile, has yet to debut in the superhero movie space. He currently stars on the Apple TV+ series “Dark Matter.”