John Krasinski and his wife Emily Blunt both lost out on major Avengers roles back when the MCU was in its infancy. Blunt was originally Iron Man 2 director Jon Favreau’s pick for the part of Black Widow, before she had to pull out due to scheduling conflicts and Scarlett Johansson ended up snatching it from her grasp, and Marvel was keen to compare Krasinski with its other Captain America: The First Avenger choice, Chris Evans, before making a firm casting decision for Steve Rogers.
After seeing Krasinski audition, Evans came out on top, and the rest was history, but a new deepfake from Shamook over on YouTube allows us a peek into an alternate dimension where Jim from The Office fought Loki, butted heads with Tony Stark and saved the world more than once, utilizing clips from The First Avenger, The Avengers and Captain America: Civil War.
Take a look…
Krasinski has been pretty open about his Captain America audition recently, even recalling how a costume fitting went awry on the day.
“The truth is, they hadn’t offered it to [Chris] yet, so they were like, ‘Let’s see who else is out there before we offer it to Chris Evans.’ And um, I went in and I tested for Captain America,” he revealed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show back in February, claiming Thor star Chris Hemsworth kinda ruined his bubbling excitement. “This is a true story: I was putting the suit on, and the [costume] guy was like, ‘This is really momentous.’ And I said, ‘Yes’, And I was putting the suit on, and it was halfway up — not wearing any clothes other than this — and [the suit] was halfway up, and right at that moment, Chris Hemsworth walked by, and he was like, ‘Ya look good, mate,’ and I was like, ‘Nope. You know what, it’s fine. We don’t have to do this.’”
Krasinski remembers pulling the suit off quickly. “[Chris] was just, like, jacked! He was like, ‘You’re gonna look great in that suit.’ And I was like, ‘Don’t make fun of me, Hemsworth.’ I acted my heart out that day. And it didn’t work out, so.”
The A Quiet Place director hasn’t given up on the possibility of joining the MCU yet, though, telling GamesRadar that if Marvel is planning to reboot Fantastic Four (again) in the future, he’d definitely be up for playing Reed Richards.
“I would love to be in the Marvel universe,” he confirmed. “I love those movies because they’re fun, but I also think they’re really well done. And certainly, a lot of my friends are in those movies. I have no idea what [Marvel] are thinking. But if they are considering me for Mr. Fantastic, continue to consider me because I would love it.”