Joe Manganiello Says "It's A Matter Of When" For A Comic Book Superhero Role

Joe Manganiello came very, very close to portraying Superman in Zack Snyder's Man of Steel. At one point, he was the actual front-runner. Unfortunately, his contract for HBO's True Blood kept him out of the final round of competition with eventual winner, Henry Cavill. While dissapointing surely, that isn't keeping Manganiello from pursuing roles in the genre---

"My schedule on 'True Blood' has kept me from the big action movies. There's been serious interest in me for big action pictures, and we can't fit them into my hiatus from the series. I have a contract. I can't walk away from it. And I wouldn't want to. But for a kid who grew up loving action pictures and comic books, that move seems like a no-brainer. Since graduating from a classical theater school, I've consciously tried to turn myself into the kind of adult actor who would make the sort of comic book superhero that I would have wanted to see when I was a kid. I hope that happens, someday. It's just a matter of when it comes up and what it is."

I honestly have to look at this and feel a little disappointed in the True Blood executive team that prevented Joe from pursuing the role. Sure a contract is binding but actors who have good relationships with their showrunners have been temporarily (sometimes permanently) written out of shows so that they can further their careers. And honestly, if he had won the role and then come back, it could've only boosted the profile of the fading show. Oh well, Cavill will be fine as Superman and I'm sure Manganiello will indeed get his shot with a comic book character one day. Of course he's already played Flash Thompson in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 3 but I think he deserves a shot at a title character. The question is which one?