Kit Harington Turned Down Superhero Movie Role Before Eternals
Before starring in Marvel's Eternals, Kit Harington turned down a different superhero role. Eternals, which will be the third film in Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, follows a group of immortal beings who have guided humanity throughout its history and have emerged from the shadows to defend Earth from the Deviants. The film was directed by Academy Award winner Chloé Zhao and stars Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, and Brian Tyree Henry.
In Eternals, Kit Harington (who is best known for playing Jon Snow on HBO's Game of Thrones) plays Dane Whitman, aka Black Knight. His character will be part of a love triangle between the romantically bonded Eternals Ikaris and Sersi, played by Harington's Game of Thrones co-star Richard Madden and Crazy Rich Asians actress Gemma Chan. Although the film will likely feature him in a limited role, Harington does hope that Black Knight has a future in the MCU.
Speaking with Total Film, Kit Harington explained that while he was filming Game of Thrones, he was offered a different superhero role. He declined to specify which character it was, but he turned it down because he "didn’t like the role" and the time it would have taken to do it. Although Harington had to Google his Eternals character before filming, he was pleased to take that role instead because he liked that the character was human and he felt he "could do something with that." Read the full quote here:
You know, the comic-book and superhero world has called once before, and I didn’t like the role and the part and the time to do it. So I turned it down. And then this one felt right to me. I liked that the character they were offering was not necessarily an Eternal. He was human. I did like that. I felt that I could do something with that, that he came with all these human faults. So it was the character that drew me to it, as well as it being the MCU, and how exciting.
I won’t mention what it was, but yeah, there was one other [superhero movie] that I did turn down a while ago. It was a while ago, as well – just because it didn’t feel like the right thing at the right time. And I think I was right to. My head was very in the Jon Snow world then.
It's not particularly easy to triangulate what role Harington is talking about. Unhelpfully, Game of Thrones ran from 2011-2019, which coincides with the biggest boom of superhero filmmaking in cinema history. However, he did say the offer came "a while ago," and it likely came somewhere between seasons 2 and 4 of Game of Thrones, when the property and its cast were at their hottest. Indeed, supporting this theory, Harington had a robust 2014, starring in Pompeii, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Testament of Youth, and Seventh Son in addition to Game of Thrones season 4. Although he kept his mouth shut on the details, his comment on his Eternals character being "human" is telling, implying that the role he was up for wasn't human.
The superhero movies on tap featuring non-human characters that were in production between 2012 and 2014 included Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and arguably Fantastic Four. It's difficult to imagine Harington being offered the roles of Drax or The Thing, but it's possible he was considered as part of the next generation of X-Men and offered the role of Quicksilver, which eventually went to Evan Peters. Hopefully some intrepid reporter worms more details out of him as the Eternals press tour continues, but for now, this is as close as speculation can get.
Source: Total Film