Leonardo DiCaprio has never done a franchise movie and is still one of the biggest movie stars in the world. He had an opportunity to make franchises when he was coming off the success of Titanic and explained why he turned them all down.
In an interview with ShortList, DiCaprio said that he did have meetings for Batman Forever, Spider-Man and even the Star Wars prequels.
The actor, who has been earning acclaim for The Revenant, said that he met with Batman Forever director Joel Schumacher about playing Robin. However, he never really wanted to play it.
“Joel Schumacher is a very talented director but I don’t think I was ready for anything like that,” DiCaprio said.
DiCaprio said that the chance to play Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels was the same scenario, even after meeting George Lucas. “Again, just didn’t feel ready to take that dive. At that point,” he said.
When asked about Spider-Man, DiCaprio replied, “Er, that was another one of those situations, similar to Robin, where I didn’t feel ready to put on that suit yet. They got in touch with me.”
But would DiCaprio ever play a superhero?
“You never know. You never know,” he said. “They’re getting better and better as far as complex characters in these movies. I haven’t yet. But no, I don’t rule out anything.”
DiCaprio doesn’t need superheroes to bring in audiences though. He’s been in nine movies that have grossed over $100 million, including Titanic, Inception, Django Unchained and The Wolf of Wall Street. He’s considered the frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar for his role in The Revenant.