Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Joel Edgerton recalled losing out on playing Peter Quill/Star-Lord to Chris Pratt in Marvel‘s Guardians of the Galaxy.
“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 during an interview with The Playlist’s “Bingeworthy” podcast while promoting his Apple TV+ series Dark Matter.
“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.”
Edgerton was one of several promising actors called to audition for James Gunn‘s first MCU project. Aside from Pratt, the Star Wars actor competed with the likes of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zachary Levi, Eddie Redmayne, and Michael Rosenbaum to name a few. Ironically, Pratt turned down the role due to his frustrations with failed auditions on some Phase One MCU projects. But a meeting with Gunn changed the actor’s perception of the character and its success at the box office landed him in Hollywood’s A-List.
Will Chris Pratt’s Star-Lord return to the MCU?
During the post-credits of 2023’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, it was teased that Pratt’s “Legendary Star-Lord” would return in a future project in the MCU. With the third Guardians marking the final installment for Gunn and the original team, Pratt teased his MCU future at the time of its release.
“Now if you’re saying to me, Chris Pratt the actor, do I want to reprise my role as Peter Quill and is there mileage left in the character and do I have the bandwidth or headspace for that? I do,” Pratt said. “I’d be interested in playing the character again.”
Guardians of the Galaxy is now streaming on Disney+.
