Right around the time of Pearl Harbor (the movie, of course, not the actual historical event), Josh Hartnett was poised to be the next leading man in Hollywood. It was 2001, and the current comic book movie craze was about to shift into high gear with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man reenergizing the genre. Hartnett told Details that he was offered the roles of Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man, but turned them all down out of a general anxiety over his fame as well as fear of being typecast.
He subsequently retreated home to Minnesota and took some time off, returning with some hits like Sin City and 30 Days of Night, then a long string of duds such as I Come with the Rain and Bunraku. (Is that last one a movie or a secret menu item at a Pho shop?) Anyway, Hartnett may have finally found his way back to big-time leading-man status with the hit series, Penny Dreadful on Showtime. Let’s just hope he doesn’t get freaked out and go hiding in the frigid Midwest again.