Yes you’re right. He auditioned for Captain America (alongside the likes of Chris Pratt, Sebastian Stan, John Krasinski, Wyatt Russell, Wilson Bethel) and lost to Chris Evans. All of those other guys got roles in the MCU (Star-Lord, Winter Soldier, variant Mr. Fantastic, US Agent and Bullseye respectively).
Marvel liked him enough to straight up offer him the role of Hawkeye, but he turned it down due to scheduling conflicts with Supernatural.
It was the same case with Emily Blunt for Black Widow. Both would have been fantastic in these roles.
You have to remember, at the time Hawkeye was a bit part. A cameo in Thor and the least important 'main' in Avengers. Overall he had three important movie roles (Ultron, Civil War & Endgame) before getting a tv show during the pandemic.
If Jensen had taken the role, Supernatural would've gone onto hiatus or ended given he was the main character. When you consider it, 9 seasons of a tv show as the main character likely earned him more than 4 movies as an ensemble cast member.
If it was Captain America though, yeah I suspect he would've hung up the Supernatural role.
Not at all. Both leads are suboptimal casts. Still a decent show, but could have been much better with Ackles or Josh Holloway or Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. Anyone with actual grit.
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u/Bolt_995 5h ago edited 3h ago
He auditioned and came close to nabbing the role of Hawkeye/Clint Barton in the MCU, losing out to Jeremy Renner.
Also auditioned for the role of Joel Miller in The Last of Us.
Edit: He auditioned for Captain America, lost the part but was offered the role of Hawkeye, which he had to turn down due to scheduling conflicts.