Justice League

Before he was an internationally famous rap star, Drake got his foot in the door of the entertainment industry as an actor. Well, it’s been a while since he’s pulled those skills out of his bag of tricks with his last non-music video credit coming in 2012 (a cameo in Anchorman 2 as “Soul Brother”). However, fans apparently nearly got to see him on the big screen as a superhero, if character designer Jared Krichevsky is to be believed.

Over the weekend, Krichevsky posted a mock-up of Drake as Justice League character Cyborg, which he says was a concept for a TV series about the half-man-half-machine former football star turned superhero. “They wanted to cast Drake at one point,” he explained.

It isn’t terribly surprising that the series concept fell through. After all, hundreds of shows are conceived and pitched without even making it to a pilot, let alone actually onto TV, and setting sights on such a big name to lead the show likely brought up all kinds of issues with budget and schedule. Again, Drake’s a huge music star who would have wanted to be properly compensated and most networks just aren’t shelling out that kind of dough for new shows — even ones with recognizable faces like his.

Besides, what with Drake recording new albums and feature verses for friends like Future, showing up at NBA Playoff games to heckle players, and participating in his own homegrown hoop league (not to mention touring), Drake doesn’t exactly have time for much world-saving. Still, somewhere out there in the multiverse, there’s a version of Drake blasting aliens with his sonic cannon alongside a Black Lightning played by Future and that’s a world I wouldn’t mind seeing.