Twenty years! It’s been twenty years since we first entered Middle-earth. But it was nearly so very different…

Back in the distant past, if you had been offered a role in The Lord of the Rings, you’d have thought twice about it too: a long, outdoorsy shoot on the other side of the world, for a relatively untested director, (presumably) not a huge amount of up-front payment and no guarantee of not being a laughing stock at the end of it, especially if you had to have a giant prosthetic nose and ramble on about wargs.

Yet the cast who eventually signed on the dotted line had a whale of a time by all accounts, not to mention an enormously successful trilogy on their CV. In some cases, the fun even went on for a further three films when Peter Jackson came back for The Hobbit.

But we’re here to see how things could have been. These are just some of the actors who were offered roles in The Lord of the Rings, but said no…

Nicolas Cage – Aragorn

(Photo credit: Touchstone Pictures New Line Cinema)

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Speaking of Aragorn and Neo in The Matrix (another role he turned down), Cage said, “I probably would have benefited from [the roles] if circumstances in my life allowed me to make them.” Make of that what you will. He divorced his first wife, Patricia Arquette, the year the Fellowship of the Ring came out, if that means anything.

Read more: Digital Spy