Jake Gyllenhaal Came Close to Playing Batman in Christopher Nolan's Trilogy, Screenwriter Reveals

Writer David S. Goyer also revealed that a studio executive wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to play The Riddler

Jake Gyllenhaal almost played the Caped Crusader for director Christopher Nolan's famous franchise.

Screenwriter David S. Goyer appeared on a new episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he revealed that he vouched for Gyllenhaal, now 42, as the actor to play Batman, aka Bruce Wayne, in 2005's Batman Begins.

The role ultimately went to Christian Bale, who held the part for a trilogy of movies all directed by Nolan (Oppenheimer).

"We would chat about all sorts of things. There were a number of people who had screen-tested, and I had advocated for Gyllenhaal," said Goyer. "I mean, Gyllenhaal is amazing, Christian Bale is amazing, so who knows what."

Related: Iconic Roles That Were 'Almost' Played by Someone Else

Goyer said "I believe there is" when asked if there is footage somewhere of Gyllenhaal auditioning in a Batman costume.

He also recalled that an executive from Warner Bros. wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to play The Riddler as a villain for the sequel The Dark Knight. But, Goyer said, "That's not the way we work," explaining that they made the movies around a story or theme, not building it around a specific villain.

The Dark Knight, in 2008, starred the late Heath Ledger (Gyllenhaal's Brokeback Mountain costar) as the Joker, and he won a posthumous Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.

Katie Holmes played Bruce Wayne's love interest Rachel Dawes in Batman Begins, but she was recast for the sequel — with Gyllenhaal's actress sister Maggie Gyllenhaal.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Jake got his comic-book movie moment in 2019 when he played supervillain Mysterio opposite Tom Holland in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Related: Christopher Nolan Says He Won’t Direct Another Superhero Movie After 'Dark Knight' Trilogy

He told Vanity Fair last year that his experience making the Spider-Man movie changed his perspective on acting after taking himself "too seriously."

"It was such a cathartic thing to be able to throw out away all that seriousness and really become the actor that I think I've always wanted to be in a lot of ways. ... We go through journeys in our life where we're finding ourselves, and in the case of Spider-Man, I think I realized, 'Hey, you know, acting's really fun, you know, enjoy it!' "

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.