Matthew Vaughn has confirmed that he originally wanted Brad Pitt as Big Daddy in 2010's Kick-Ass before the role went to Nicolas Cage.
Cage famously played retired police officer Damon Macready, who walked the streets of New York as the brutal vigilante known as Big Daddy. While Cage added his own signature style to the role, it turns out Vaughn had originally imagined a different version of Big Daddy, with Pitt behind the mask.
Vaughn spoke in an interview with THR about how he met Pitt while working on Guy Ritchie's Snatch, and how the star was brought on as a producer but was also his first choice for Big Daddy. Pitt is up there as one of Hollywood's biggest names, but so is Cage, who landed the role after Pitt chose to star in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds.
"I knew Nic loved comic books and superheroes, and this script was a love letter to superheroes," Vaughn said of Cage. "The film imagines what it would be like if the ultimate fanboy suddenly decided to play superhero, and some people mistakingly felt we were attacking the genre, but I knew Nic would buy in."
It seems to have been the right call, as Cage earned a great deal of praise for his performance as Big Daddy. The character was an important part of Hit-Girl's arc, in addition to having his own appeal for fans.
Kick-Ass wasn't the only near miss for Pitt when it comes to the world of comic book movies. For months, rumors circulated that he would be playing Cable for David Leitch's Deadpool 2, but the role ultimately went to Josh Brolin, while Pitt's involvement was limited to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as the Vanisher.
Vaughn credits Cage with a lot of Big Daddy's characterization, so how he would have changed with Pitt in the role will remain unknown. With Vaughn planning to reboot Kick-Ass after the lackluster reception of the second movie, there may yet be a second chance for Pitt to come aboard, whether in another version of Vaughn's original vision for him, or in a new role altogether.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn, and adapted from the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., Kick-Ass stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Evan Peters, Lyndsy Fonseca, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong and Garrett M. Brown.