The Marvel Cinematic Universe has already been around so long that it’s hard to believe there was a time when Robert Downey Jr. wasn’t necessarily deemed the best fit for Tony Stark — or when Chris Evans was known as The Human Torch from Fantastic Four rather than Captain America himself.

Of course, we all know this as fact: studios hold auditions for some of their biggest roles, and names that we hear hovering around certain roles are sometimes a bit odd. Back during the casting of Cap, I remember hearing that John Krasinski was in the running. Nowadays, Krasinski has started to make a bigger name for himself. He’s already directed two films (including the recent Hollars), and has even shown his worth as a bit of a badass in the Michael Bay flick 13 Hours. He’s even locked down the role of Jack Ryan in the upcoming TV series from Amazon and Paramount. Back during the audition process, however, Krasinski was almost exclusively known as Jim from The Office.

The actor hasn’t really spoken a lot about his audition for Captain America in the past, but in a recent interview with Conan O’Brien, he discussed how actor Chris Hemsworth (Thor) absolutely killed his self-esteem during the audition process.

“It was a big deal for me, because first of all I love those Marvel movies. I love superheroes. I love imagination. When they asked me to test they actually allowed me to put on the suit. I was on a set, it was all very interesting. I feel like as I’m talking about this someone from Marvel is going to — [spit noise] — just dart me, I’m not allowed to talk about it at all. The only bummer of it was I was putting on the suit, just watching it like ‘This is so amazing,’ and I got to right about my waist, I was still shirtless, feeling pretty good about myself. I wasn’t 13 Hours yet, but I felt pretty good and all of a sudden Chris Hemsworth walks by as Thor and he’s like ‘Hey mate,’ and I went ‘I’m good. This is stupid. I shouldn’t. It’s okay, I’m not Captain America. It’s fine.’”

While things may not have worked out in Krasinski’s favor for that specific audition, it’s hard to argue against Evans ultimately getting the gig of the patriotic hero. That’s not to say Krasinski couldn’t have done a great job, but it’s difficult to see Evans without seeing Captain America. At this point, he’s about as synonymous with his character as RDJ is with Tony Stark. What’s more, it’s not as though Krasinski has stayed stagnant in the industry in the past eight-plus years. With all his recent experience, who’s to say Marvel won’t use his talents somewhere else down the line.

You never know! Stranger things have happened!

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SOURCE: Conan