Interesting topic, icarus. I've found the history of certain famous movies to be interesting for who was considered for playing whom in them but did not for one reason or another.

I think for the most part the producers and directors get it right but still...one can ponder what might have been.  

Looking forward to some future comments here.  

Andrew Garfield would have been an interesting choice for Peter or Caspian. 

I can tell you that Jaxin Hall, a New Zealander, was the last competition for William Moseley for the role of Peter in LWW.

Jaxin was an early member of NarniaWeb, and I used to be in touch with him. He was flown over to London for the last screen tests, which must have been pretty exciting - but very disappointing not to get the role.

He was given a small role of a soldier at the railway station; it was written for Peter and the soldier to look at each other, and wish they could change places. Unfortunately most of the scene was cut, and the soldier appears like a featured extra (don't blink or you miss him and the message!)

Jaxin played a few more roles in New Zealand, and is now a family man, with music and a clothing label among his talents.

That's really cool @coracle. I had heard the story about why he was cast as the Soldier but didn't realise he was also a NarniaWebber.

Another "Almost" Peter was Ed Speelers who went on to find fame with the movie Eragon (2006), and more recently with the TV series Downton Abbey (2012 - 2014).

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/jan/10/ed-speleers-beowulf-tv-fashion-actor

http://www.shurtugal.com/2006/12/04/ed-speleers-discusses-eragon-with-chicago-tv-station/

The one that immediately comes to mind for me is Brian Cox was actually cast to play Aslan, but for reasons I don't recall right now, he ended up being replaced with Liam Neeson.

Posted by: @fantasia

The one that immediately comes to mind for me is Brian Cox was actually cast to play Aslan, but for reasons I don't recall right now, he ended up being replaced with Liam Neeson.

Good memory @fantasia! That feels like an absolute lifetime ago!

At the time it was reported that he left because he lost some weight and his voice changed, though that excuse never really tracked with me since Brian Cox has always looked and sounded just the same in all the movies I've ever seen him in.

Looking back now at the original news story, Brian Cox's publicist debunked the whole "weight loss" story right there and then. Apparently it was a simple scheduling issue which makes a lot more sense:

https://www.narniaweb.com/2005/04/brian-cox-no-longer-aslan/

The story also reported a list of names for people who auditioned as his replacement as Aslan:

• Jason Isaacs
• Timothy Dalton
• Sean Bean
• Gerard Butler
• Ian McKellen
• Ralph Fiennes

The name that always stands out from that list in terms of a pure "animalistic" quality is Gerard Butler. He's got such a deep roaring voice. Perhaps he wouldn't have been so good at the gentler parts of Aslan's character, but he's definitely got the most Lion-like voice of those names.

The only other "almost" casting I've been able to find so far is the actor Nabil Shaban who auditioned for the role of Nikabrik in Prince Caspian.

He's probably not a name that many people would be familiar with (especially in comparison to Warwick Davies who eventually got the part) but he has been in a few high-profile things, such as Children of Men, and Doctor Who.

His audition video for Prince Caspian can be found here:

I enjoyed watching that. It's worth seeing the whole video.
I looked him up online and was pleased to see that he was a co-founder of Graeae, an acting company using only people with disabilities. I once tried to see if I could get work with them when I was in UK.

I also noted that he called himself a fake dwarf.  In fact he has a less common form of dwarfism, Osteogenesis Imperfecta, (in which the person's bones are brittle and their connecting tissue does not form properly). Warwick Davis, who did get the role, and is a similar height, has a different uncommon form of dwarfism.

I think Brian Cox was almost cast as Aslan. Then it was rumored that Kate Winslet was going to play the White Witch. Other rumors were Michelle Pfiffer and Nicole Kidman.

While not an almost cast, I think Tim Curry would've been a good King Miraz (since he's been known to play villains).

Very interesting article about Andrew Garfield almost being cast as Caspian. I'm not sure that I've ever seen him in anything before so I don't really have an opinion one way or another.

I liked Ben Barnes in the role he was given (particularly VDT). I just wasn't the biggest fan in the way they did the role (much older than the book).  

  I think Ben Barnes fitted the role better than Andrew would; however, Netflix should cast Andrew in the series, in my opinion! He deserves it, and the reason why he wasn't in the movies was kinda rude; he could be Frank, the cabin driver from The Magician's Nephew. What do you guys think?

@calormenwarrior Andrew Garfield might be a good Frank for Netflix in The Magician's Nephew or he could be Prince Rilian in The Silver Chair or even King Tirian in The Last Battle.

Posted by: @fantasia

Very interesting article about Andrew Garfield almost being cast as Caspian 

I've noticed that Andrew Garfield loves to trot out the anecdote about how he was rejected from Prince Caspian for "not being handsome enough" whenever he's promoting a new project (or at least it shows up on my Google News results often enough) presumably because it's a funny story which works well for him on the TV Talk Show circuit.

Anyway, whether or not there is any truth to the "handsome" part or not, someone on Reddit ran the premise of "Andrew Garfield as Prince Caspian" through an AI Image generator, and the results are surprisingly good!

Compared to Ben Barnes and his square jawed ruggedness, Andrew Garfield's more "boyish" facial features definitely make him feel more like the Caspian described in the book.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Narnia/comments/12397us/andrew_garfield_as_prince_caspian_ai_art_of_what/

There was an article on Screen Rant this week titled "10 Failed Castings in Disney's Narnia Movies"

https://screenrant.com/disney-chronicles-of-narnia-movie-failed-castings

Whilst it's mostly just a collection of information already compiled in this thread, it does claim that Michelle Pfeiffer was offered the role of The White Witch prior to Tilda Swinton, which I'm not sure that I've ever heard as being confirmed before (noting though that Jasmine did mention it earlier in this thread too though)

Mind you, they have also quoted the story about Nicole Kidman also being offered the same role, which I'm fairly certain was a rumour that got debunked a long time ago.

Perhaps I'm putting too much faith in a site like ScreenRant to check it's sources though.... Chances are they just harvested our own message board to generate a quick click-bait article to cash in on all the Greta Gerwig news, therefore this is nothing more than just circular reporting.