Henry Cavill almost beat Daniel Craig to James Bond role in Casino Royale

Henry Cavill was almost cast for the role of James Bond in Casino Royale due to his immaculate audition.

During an appearance for a SiriusXM interview, director Matthew Vaughn revealed the filmmakers ended up choosing Daniel Craig because of his appropriate age for the role.

"When Henry was auditioning for Bond, I was at Pinewood, right? And Daniel was as well at the same time,” the Argylle director told the host. “I’d go off and meet with Daniel and [I’d] say ‘what’s going on,’ and he said ‘there’s this young guy, Henry Cavill I think they’re seeing as well [for the auditions]’.”

The 52-year-old filmmaker explained that the director of the film, Martin Campbell and producer Barbara Broccoli had a conflict of opinion over their best bets for the character.

“It got down to the last two for Bond… And I know that the director preferred your audition,” shared Vaughn. “But [producer] Barbara [Broccoli] preferred [Craig]”.

He added: “So, just so you know, and they decided you were too young.”

In the latest spy thriller film, Cavill’s character is similar to that of James Bond, however, the Witcher alum assured the new film wouldn’t affect his chances at taking a go at the popular master assassin once again.

"Whether I’m ruled out of Bond because of this or not is up to Barbara Broccoli and [producer] Mr. Wilson," Cavill told Games Radar.