Mark Wahlberg has been a prolific actor for decades, but he recently revealed a famous DC hero with a divisive big-screen history he almost played.

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SUMMARY

Mark Wahlberg was in discussions to play Robin in Batman Forever in 1997, but he never received an official offer or did any screen tests.
DC’s Batman and Batman Returns were hits, but Batman Forever and Batman & Robin weren’t as successful.
Wahlberg has not played any superhero characters in his long acting career.

Mark Wahlberg reveals the divisive Batman Forever character he almost played back in 1997. DC’s Batman (1989) was a smash hit, and its sequel, Batman Returns, delivered another iconic adventure for the Caped Crusader.

\Unfortunately, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, directed by Joel Schumacher instead of Tim Burton, failed to garner the same excitement. Though the movies had several problems in general writing, tone, and villains, their interpretation of Robin also largely failed to impress.

Speaking on Happy Sad Confused, Wahlberg confirmed that he was in discussions to play Dick Grayson, AKA Robin, in Schumacher’s Batman Forever. However, according to the Shooter and The Departed star, he never received an official offer or did any screen tests in the suit. Listen to his full comments below:

Wahlberg doesn’t seem to be too upset about missing out on the role, especially with the benefit of hindsight, knowing that Batman Forever and Batman & Robin didn’t reach the same heights as their predecessors.

Though often derided by critics and fans, Joel Schumacher’s Batman movies deserve praise for developing the design of Gotham City and the Dark Knight.

Mark Wahlberg’s Superhero Movie History Explained

Mark Wahlberg has criticized the overabundance of CGI and the sameness of many modern superhero movies, but that hasn’t stopped rumors from swirling around whom the actor could play in a Marvel or DC movie.

Vague rumors in the 2010s indicated that he may have been in the running for Green Lantern in Zack Snyder’s DCEU, but Wahlberg denies having met with anyone about the role in the above interview. Instead, he mentions talking about a Watchmen role (also directed by Snyder) but can’t recall which character he was up for.

Marvel’s movies have had hordes of celebrity cameos, with many of them falling by the wayside by being too brief to properly harness their star power.

Rumors also popped up that Wahlberg met with Sony during his time filming Uncharted to take on a role in the Sony Spider-Man Universe, but no official comment was made.

More substantially, Wahlberg told Yahoo! back in 2013 that he’d love to take on the role of Tony Stark if the opportunity ever arose. Given Marvel is in the midst of the Multiverse Saga, it’s possible he could appear as an Iron Man variant as a wink to his past comments. However, the idea may never get any more tangible than Wahlberg suiting up in Batman Forever.