Lindsay Lohan Almost Starred in The Avengers, But as Whom?
Somewhere in the multiverse, there exists a reality in which Lindsay Lohan worked with the Avengers.
Lindsay revealed all the way back in 2014 that she was passed over for a role in 2012's Avengers, referring to the woman who eventually got the role as an "unknown."
She'd apparently been telling her manager to get her a role on the massive blockbuster but claimed her manager didn't push hard enough for it. She claimed that if she didn't work in a film, he'd pass it to one of her other clients.
This begs the question: What role did she so desperately want?
Back in 2012, the MCU still leaned pretty heavily on its male stars – there weren't a lot of female parts Lohan could have been pushing for. Black Widow and Pepper Potts can obviously be excluded, considering were introduced in prior movies. And however big a star Lohan might have been in the 2000s, there's no way she'd refer to Scarlett Johansson nor Gwyneth Paltrow as "unknowns."
The most logical assumption – and the most interesting – is Agent Maria Hill. Hill was Colonel Nick Fury's second in command, introduced in the opening scene of Avengers. She's since appeared in several other MCU movies over the next decade, with maybe her biggest role coming to Spider-Man: No Way Home.
It makes sense that Lohan would be interested in a newly cast role with such tremendous potential, and she was certainly a bigger star than the actress who played Hill. How I Met Your Mother 's Cobie Smulders was ultimately cast. While she was famous by television standards, she certainly didn't have the international starpower of Lohan.
Lohan had fallen from grace after her days as a child star, and by the time Avengers was released, was mounting a comeback. She appeared in Robert Rodriguez's Machete in 2010, guest starred in Glee in 2012, and made several high-profile media appearances – including the OWN appearance in which she revealed her desire to join the MCU.
In that same interview, she said that every day she's not working in film, her talents are being wasted. It's what she "was born, and live, to do."
If she had been cast as Maria Hill, the landscape of the MCU might look a little different. Smulders didn't work on the ABC show Agents of SHIELD because of contractual obligations with How I Met your Mother. Lohan wouldn't have been under the same constraints.
Hill, played by Lohan, would have therefore starred in her own TV show alongside Phil Coulson. Her popularity as a character would likely have been boosted, thereby earning her more screen time in the film franchise.
For Lohan, it would have been a career-changer. She never really did make that comeback she had attempted. Other than a few guest appearances, producer credits, and a handful of poorly received movies, she hasn't done much in the industry since Avengers' release.
With a role in the MCU, she'd have another shot at stardom, rather than being remembered as an actress who peaked too early.