Guardians Of The Galaxy Villain Lee Pace Originally Auditioned For Star-Lord

There may be no better example that shows what a chameleon actor Lee Pace is than his role as Ronan the Accuser in "Guardians of the Galaxy." Pace is virtually unrecognizable as the radicalized Kree enforcer, mostly thanks to the work done by makeup artist Lizzie Georgiou, who also helped finalize the looks for Yondu (Michael Rooker), The Collector (Benicio Del Toro), and the presumed leader (it's really Rocket) of the Guardians, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt). Without all the extensive makeup caked on, fans will know Pace as tech entrepreneur Joe MacMillan in AMC's "Halt and Catch Fire," and horror aficionados will remember him from Halina Reijn's housebound thriller "Bodies Bodies Bodies" from last year. Pace was also perfectly cast as the wise elf Thandruil in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."

Just before Pace appeared onscreen donning elf ears for "The Hobbit" prequels, he almost wound up carrying Star-Lord's quad blaster pistol instead of Ronan's Cosmi-Rod. Back in 2012, Movie Web reported that Pace auditioned for the role of Star-Lord along with most of Hollywood including Joel Edgerton, Jim Sturgess, Jack Huston, and Eddie Redmayne, just to name a few. 

Thanks to some last-minute advice from director James Gunn and a little help from Dave Bautista, the role eventually ended up in the hands of Chris Pratt who, at the time, was only known as Andy Dwyer from "Parks and Recreation." 

In a classic example of what could have been, MTV caught up with Pace just before he went before the top brass at Marvel to try out for Peter Quill. But alas, it just wasn't meant to be. Pace told MTV:

"I go in on Monday to meet them all and audition for it, so wish me luck ... I'm very excited about it. The script is great ... I have been [reading up on Star-Lord]. You want to know what you're doing. The character is a lot of fun. I hope it works out. We'll see. We'll see. I've got to audition. I've got to go get it. I actually love auditioning, so I'm happy to go meet them all and do it."

It's certainly fun to think about the possibility of Pace having a much larger role in the MCU. Although judging from his height, he may have been better off playing Groot instead of Quill. After showing up as a younger, '90s alternative version of Ronan in "Captain Marvel," there is still a chance that Ronan could show up in a flashback in "The Marvels" tormenting the mind of Carol Danvers (Brie Larson). 

Personally, I'd rather see him in a part that didn't require such a massive amount of makeup and prosthetics. Let Lee Pace's natural charisma shine through in another comic book property instead. With James Gunn's involvement in the recently announced "Booster Gold" DC Studios series, Pace could be a great choice for the lead role, although Gunn has said previously that they have one actor in particular in mind.