Kellan Lutz almost played Edward Cullen in the Twilight movies!

While attending a fan expo in Chicago earlier this month, the 40-year-old actor explained why he turned down the opportunity to audition for the lead role in the hit franchise, which ultimately went to Robert Pattinson.

Keep reading to find out more…“I had been doing Generation Kill in Africa for seven months, so I was something that was very timely and sensitive and a lot of death, a lot of destruction and away from my family,” Kellan recalled, per Entertainment Weekly.

“So I wasn’t in the best piece of mind,” he continued. “I just wanted peace and joy in my life again. So when that audition came and I read it, I just wasn’t in that sort of mindset.”

Kellan, who played Emmett Cullen in all five Twilight movies, explained that when his manager told him that he could go on to do “multiple” movies since Twilight was the first in the series, it dissuade him even more from wanting to play Edward.

“I’m like, that’s even worse like to play this depressing character who I saw him as,” Kellan admitted. “I was like, ‘I know that’s not for me,’ so I passed on it.”

Even though he passed on auditioning for Edward, that wasn’t the end of Kellan‘s Twilight journey.

“Emmett was already cast and then they opened that up again because the actor just didn’t work out,” he recalled. “And when they sent me the lines for Emmett, I read them, there’s like 4 lines, right? They’re all funny, or in my head they’re funny. I was like, ‘Oh this is cool, this guy is cool.’”

“And I read him in the books and I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s great,’” Kellan continued. “At least he’s, in my head, the comedic relief. A man of a few words, but they’re funny. And so, I got to eat those up on set whenever I could.”

If you didn’t know, Kellan Lutz was very close to playing this Marvel superhero!