Star Wars’ Joel Edgerton Reflects on Failed Star-Lord Audition: “The World Is a Better Place”

Dark Matter star and Star Wars franchise veteran Joel Edgerton is one of the many, many Hollywood actors who auditioned to be Star-Lord — and he’s glad he didn’t get it. The casting call for the Guardians of the Galaxy lead went out far and wide, with names as varied as Adam Brody, Lee Pace, Eddie Redmayne, Zachary Levi, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and many more giving it a go. Some came closer than others, with Pace even appearing in the movie as Ronan the Accuser, but because the Marvel Cinematic Universe loomed so large over a decade of cinema, the question of “what if…?” comes up a lot. 

In Edgerton’s case, he says it’s better that he didn’t get the part — not just because he’s happy with where he ended up, but because he doesn’t know that he would have been especially good for Guardians of the Galaxy. According to Edgerton, he didn’t quite understand the tone Gunn was going for — and that tone, obviously, was pretty important to the way an eccentric masterpiece like Guardians was received.

“I, unlike Chris, didn’t quite sort of understand the tone of it the way he did and the way that those guys did,” Edgerton told The Playlist’s Bingeworthy 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.”

He also noted that while he had a chance to audition — so did a lot of people. It was never a “serious” conversation that he might get the part, and he doesn’t seem to believe he was on the shortlist.

“There was never a real conversation that it would have definitely been me,” Edgerton admitted. “It was just, I had the opportunity to try and audition. I just didn’t quite understand it.”

It’s a little difficult to overstate the impact that Guardians of the Galaxy had on Marvel, and the blockbuster marketplace at large. Not only did it launch Pratt into superstardom, but Guardians‘s aesthetic helped shape much of what Marvel Studios did for a decade in every movie that featured spacefaring characters. The brighter colors and zanier tone certainly seems to have influenced what Thor: Ragnarok filmmaker Taika Waititi did with that character.

Gunn, of course, has since moved on from Marvel and is in charge of DC Studios, along with his production partner Peter Safran.

Edgerton, for his part, is now appearing in Apple TV+’s Dark Matter, which airs Wednesdays on the streamer.