Sylvester Stallone Nearly Played A Live-Action Batman Opposite Mark Hamill's Joker

In the early 2000s, Sylvester Stallone was arguably at the lowest point of his career. Having written himself into Hollywood with "Rocky" in 1976, the actor had gone on to redefine action movies as one of the most significant action stars of the '80s. When 1988's "Rambo III" and 1990's "Rocky V" failed to connect with audiences and critics, however, it seemed his time in the spotlight might have been waning. It didn't help that his longtime rival Arnold Schwarzenegger tricked him into appearing in the flop "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot" in 1992.

In spite of this, the always resilient actor found his way back to relevancy by starring in 1993's "Cliffhanger" (which, to this day, remains one of Stallone's best movies). That same year, he also starred opposite Wesley Snipes in the box office hit "Demolition Man," which isn't remembered quite as fondly as his rock climbing actioner but was a commercial success that has garnered somewhat of a cult following in the years since its release. Alas, having appeared in a string of duds and with a new movie-going generation replacing the die hard Rambo and Rocky fans, by the end of the '90s Sly was struggling even more than he had as the '80s came to a close.

Ultimately, much like Rocky himself, Stallone would weather the storm and ascend to prominence once again with 2006's "Rocky Balboa," a surprisingly moving and elegiac entry in the beloved franchise that, like the original "Rocky," mirrored Sly's own personal struggles to powerful effect. But in that period between the blunder that was 1995's "Judge Dredd" and "Rocky Balboa," Stallone made a lot of questionable decisions and was, at one point, seriously considering starring in a Batman fan film that would have seen him appear opposite a live-action version of Mark Hamill's Joker.

In the late '90s, just as Sylvester Stallone was sliding into irrelevance, the Batman franchise was facing its own struggles. 1997's "Batman & Robin," which co-starred Sly's rival Arnold Schwarzenegger as the villain Mr. Freeze, had all but killed the once mighty Batman saga, and it wouldn't be until 2005, when Christopher Nolan delivered "Batman Begins," that the property would be revived. In that interim period, however, fans did at least get a half-decent fan film, which even today is fondly recalled as one of the finest fan projects ever made.

"Batman: Dead End" was the result of sculptor, concept artist, and music video and commercial director Sandy Collora trying to branch out and catch Hollywood's attention with a fan-made Batman project that actually did get some notable traction. Debuting at the 2003 San Diego Comic-Con, the eight-minute film saw a version of the Dark Knight — one that looked remarkably similar to the Alex Ross version of the character — doing battle with the Joker in a Gotham alley. Things quickly took a drastic and fantastical turn, however, when Batman found himself confronted with a Xenomorph from the "Alien" franchise. But that wasn't the only alien species to appear in "Batman: Dead End," as a Predator from that particular famous, Schwarzenegger-propelled franchise showed up to take on the Dark Knight. Then, after Batman defeated the Predator, he was confronted by several more of the killer extraterrestrials, before a group of Xenomorph aliens appeared behind him, seemingly sealing his fate as a cut to black signaled our arrival at the eponymous "Dead End."

Written and directed by Collora, who sunk $30,000 of his own money into the project, the film caused a stir upon its Comic-Con debut and quickly found its way online, where it was shared widely — not bad for an unofficial Batman movie with no stars or major budget to speak of. But "Batman: Dead End" almost did benefit from having a big-name star onboard, even if that star was at somewhat of a nadir in his career.

"Batman: Dead End" featured Clark Bartram as Batman and Andrew Koenig as the Joker, neither of whom get many lines since the majority of the film is taken up by the Dark Knight's face-off with the Predator. Still, the pair clearly did a decent job, as "Dead End" remains a high point in fan film history. As Sandy Collora told US News in 2003, "Now I get recognized at the grocery story, and people line up to talk to me at the comic book store when I go to get my new comics every Wednesday. And I'm getting hundreds of E-mails a day." Had Collora managed to get his first choices for the lead roles, however, the film might well have become even more well-known — though perhaps for the wrong reasons.

A post by the X/Twitter user @BatKilmer containing images from a making-of documentary, "Behind the Mask: The Batman Dead End Story," has revealed that Sylvester Stallone was at one point involved with the short film. In fact, he was evidently eager to star, and would have done so opposite none other than Mark Hamil, who famously crafted a career as the Joker with his definitive voice acting on "Batman: The Animated Series" in the early '90s.

We nearly lived in a glorious timeline where Sylvester Stallone was Batman with Mark Hamill (actually) playing Joker.

I am not making this up. pic.twitter.com/wVLnVPtzG2

— BatKilmer (@BatKilmer) October 18, 2024

The post features shots depicting clay models of Stallone's face in a Batman cowl, alongside a clip from the documentary that details the veteran star's brief involvement with the project. Why was one of the biggest action stars ever considering joining a fan film in 2003? Well, it had something to do with the fact that he wasn't doing much else at the time...

In a clip from "Behind the Mask: The Batman Dead End Story," Sandy Collora explains how he met with Sylvester Stallone after his lawyer — whose partner played golf with the "Rocky" star — set them up. Collora, who admits to being a "huge 'Rocky' fan," remembers calling Stallone and setting up a meeting at the actor's house. When he got there, he was surprised to find that the legendary star was not only interested to hear what he was working on, but was also keen to star in his unofficial Batman project. As Collora put it:

"He's like [...] 'What are you working on now?' and I said, 'Well, oddly enough it's a little Batman movie I'm putting together.' He put his drink down, he goes, 'Batman? Really? [...] How sure are you that the studios aren't going to come after you?' I said, 'Well, to be honest with you Sly, I'm winging it, I don't know.' And there's just a long pause and he just goes, 'Alright, I'm in.'"

Collora went on to explain how, at first, he wasn't sure what Stallone meant by this comment, recalling how he expected the actor to perhaps fund the project. "At that moment I didn't know what he meant," Collora said. "But what he was telling me is that he wanted to play Batman."

At this point in his career, Stallone was trying to get his "Rocky" revisit made, which eventually came out as "Rocky Balboa" in 2006. But the actor has spoken widely about how it took seven or so years to get that project off the ground and relaunch his career. As such, it seems he was willing to appear in a fan film during the period where it looked like "Rocky Balboa" might never make it to the screen. In a separate clip from the documentary, Collora even admits that Sly was "in that kind of funk, before he kind of re-emerged like the phoenix he so wonderfully did," and that this was "the only reason why somebody like that would take a meeting with somebody like me."

Stallone obviously didn't end up starring in the short film and his reason for pulling out isn't entirely clear, though according to an MSN article, a threads user by the name of Coty Ellis claimed that the actor exited the project due to pressure from his agent, who felt "Dead End" would be somewhat of a, well, dead end for his client's career. What's more, Mark Hamill was, reportedly, only onboard if Stallone was confirmed, and after the latter left the project, so too did Hamill.

Other than his role as Judge Dredd in the most ridiculous sci-fi movie to predict our terrifying present, Stallone would ultimately go on to play Stakar Ogord aka Starhawk in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" (2017) and "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" (2023). He also voiced King Shark in James Gunn's 2021 effort "The Suicide Squad." It's not quite Batman, but I think that's probably for the best.