The Fandom (de)Bunker

This rumor is CONFIRMED. 

In episode 5.04 (The End) the original script says: 

But instead, we become this. The only thing I think we have left, Dean and me, is each other. (unadorned sincerity) If Dean says it’s time to go out in a blaze of glory, win or lose, so be it. I’m in. But then…  (smiles easily at Dean) That’s just how I roll.

This script (which can be seen here) was won by Laura (tumblr user hidefan) in an auction at Rising Con in 2010. She posted it on her tumblr after having the script signed by Misha Collins at the same convention the following year. (x) 

In the episode, Castiel says: 

Except I used to belong to a much better club. And now I’m powerless. I’m hapless, I’m hopeless. I mean, why the hell not bury myself in women and decadence, right? It’s the end, baby. That’s what decadence is for. Why not bang a few gongs before the lights go out? But then that’s, that’s just how I roll.

(From Supernatural Wiki’s Transcript)

Therefore, the line was changed between the original script and the final version in the show, and this rumor is Confirmed.

(If you’ve got a supernatural rumor you’d like fact-checked, peruse our Rumor Masterpost or send us an ask!)

Notes: 

Laura (hidefan) has the entire script, but this was the most significant difference between the script and the show. 

I was going to write up a post in the format of @messier51 's Media Journalism is a Giant Game of Telephone, but I'm up to 9+ single spaced pages in a Google Doc so here's the TL;DR version in a format inspired by @fandomdebunker

Today I did a Google search with the terms "Jensen Ackles" "Hawkeye" and took a cap of the top hits:

Let’s play follow the source on those hits:

The Things (Charr 2020) → Indie Wire (Sharf 2018) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

Indie Wire (Sharf 2018) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

Showbiz Cheat Sheet (Greg Brian 2020) → Indie Wire (Sharf 2018) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

CBR (Curovic 2017)  → no source (clickbait listicle)

Quora (Light 2019)

Indie Wire (Sharf 2018) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

Warped Factor (Geek Dave 2014) → Collider (Goldberg 2010) → THR's Heat Vision Blog (Kit 2010)

Looper (Boone 2016) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

CBR (Curovic 2017)  → no source (clickbait listicle)

Popsugar (Prahl 2019) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

All roads lead back to Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014):

Ackles is rumored to have given up the role of Hawkeye in The Avengers, and Marvel Studios continues to remind him of its interest in bringing him in to its ever-growing Cinematic Universe. On top of that, Ackles' current relationship with Warner Bros. (through Warner Bros. television) is likely to have DC interested as well, as they know exactly how strong – not to mention valuable – he his as an actor.

The Screen Rant tag for "The Avengers" is not a source, it is a time limited pile of clickbait and even using an archived link from January 24, 2014 I found nothing. Am I supposed to click back to 2010 to attempt to find a source? (Yes.) I'm guessing Browne 2010, Keyes 2010a, and Keyes 2010b are supposed to be the sources, not that there is a single word about Hawkeye? 

Oh, and sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) piece where you’ll see a link to Goldman 2014: Ocasio 2014 is basically a copy/paste of this article. 

Here's the complete text of  Goldman 2014:

The last show left to originally air on The WB, Supernatural has had an impressively long life, and is now in Season 9. The show not only continues to be one of the strongest performers on The CW, but its ratings have been up this season from the previous year. Still, just how much longer could the series go?

Asked that question at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today, CW's president, Mark Pedowitz, essentially said the show could go on indefinitely - as long as the ratings continue to hold up and the Supernatural team wants to continue.

Said Pedowitz, "As a fan of the show, who’s seen every episode, as long as I’m here and those numbers hold, God bless them. They can go as long as they want."

As for the potential Supernatural spinoff, which will be set up in a backdoor pilot this season, Pedowitz was asked if that was still in play and he replied, "Yes, very much so. It's set in Chicago. Hunters, monsters... The script just came in."

As for whether any of the main Supernatural characters would appear in the spinoff, which will be centered around new characters, Pedowitz said, "In the spinoff episode, they'd be in it. Whether they're in the series... For me, for spinoffs to work, you have to stand them on their own two legs, so you can only do those crossovers when the time is right, like we did with The Originals. We didn't see Michael Trevino's character, Tyler, until the seventh or eighth episode. By that time, the show was standing up on its own two legs."

So where the hell did (Ocasio 2014) get the Hawkeye bit from? I'm going to speculate it was an internet created rumor stemming from either a dodgy publicist planting the rumor or fan casting back in 2010 becoming lore.

Last night I DM'ed Jules Wilkinson (SupernaturalWiki admin) and she said her "Jensen expert" friend didn't remember him ever mentioning it at a Con or otherwise. Jules thinks it may be an internet created rumor, possibility originating from a publicist: "It's an easy way to get press for a movie without actually confirming anything, and its unlikely an actor will straight out deny being mentioned in relation to a high profile project (although sometimes they do years later)".

Another possibility is fan casting back in 2010 became lore when a writer included it in their articles:

"If Ackles can't be cast in Captain America, can he pretty, pretty please be cast as Hawkeye in the upcoming Avengers film?" (Saucedo 2010a) 

"While the Supernatural geek in me would have preferred Jensen Ackles in the role, I have to say Renner is a nice addition to the cast — really complimenting the caliber of actors Marvel has recruited to don leather costumes and punch each other." (Saucedo 2010b) 

Finally, maybe the dude just made it up for hits.

I do not consider the speculative content in Ocasio 2014 to be a reliable source; therefore, I'm classifying this rumor as DEBUNKED.

Bibliography

Boone, Brian. (2016, November 28 / 2018, April 23). Actors who were almost cast as an Avenger. Looper. Retrieved from  https://www.looper.com/27858/actors-almost-cast-avenger/

Browne, Niall. (2010, February 24). Who Will Be Captain America? Now We (Sort of) Know... Screen Rant. Retrieved from https://screenrant.com/captain-america-mcasting-picks/

Chaar, Michael. (2020, August 7). 'Supernatural' Star Jensen Ackles Turned Down The Chance To Be An Avenger. The Things. Retrieved from https://www.thethings.com/supernatural-star-jensen-ackles-turned-down-the-chance-to-be-an-avenger/

Curovic, Irina. (2017, September 29). "15 Actors Who Turned Down MCU". CBR. Retrieved from https://www.cbr.com/actors-who-turned-down-the-mcu/

Geek Dave. (2014, July 24). The Actors Who Could've Been The Avengers. Warped Factor. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20140808121212/http://www.warpedfactor.com/2014/07/the-actors-who-couldve-been-avengers_21.html

Goldberg, Matt. (2010, February 24). The First Avenger: Captain America Short-List Includes John Krasinski, Scott Porter, Garrett Hedlund, Jensen Ackles. Collider. Retrieved from https://collider.com/the-first-avenger-captain-america-short-list-includes-john-krasinski-scott-porter-garrett-hedlund-jensen-ackles-and-others/

Goldman, Eric. (2014, January 15). The CW President on How Much Longer Supernatural Can Go and the Status of the Spinoff. IGN. Retrieved from  https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/15/the-cw-president-on-how-much-longer-supernatural-can-go-and-the-status-of-the-spinoff 

Greg Brian. (2020, July 23). 'The Avengers': Hawkeye Was Almost Played by a Lead 'Supernatural' Actor. Showbiz Cheat Sheet. Retrieved from  https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-avengers-hawkeye-was-almost-played-by-a-lead-supernatural-actor.html/

Keyes, Rob. (2010a, February 13). Could Chris Pine Be Captain America? Screen Rant. Retrieved from https://screenrant.com/could-chris-pine-be-captain-america/

Keyes, Rob. (2010b, March 5). Captain America Casting Updates. Screen Rant. Retrieved from https://screenrant.com/captain-america-casting-updates-neal-bledsoe/

Kit, Borys. (2010, February 24). Captain America contenders: Krasinski, Crawford, Vogel, more. The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog. [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20100227045124/http://www.heatvisionblog.com/2010/02/captain-america-contenders-krasinski-cassidy-vogel-fluger-more.html

Light, Jeff. (2019, May 9). Why was Jensen Ackles offered so many Marvel movie roles? Quora. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Jensen-Ackles-offered-so-many-Marvel-movie-roles

messier51. (2014, July 2014). Media Journalism is a Giant Game of Telephone. [Tumblr post]. Retrieved from https://messier51.tumblr.com/post/92751093562/media-journalism-is-a-giant-game-of-telephone

Ocasio, Anthony. (2014, January 17). 'Supernatural' Season 10, 11 (& More) Will Happen if Ratings Hold. Screen Rant. Retrieved from  http://screenrant.com/supernatural-season-10-11-renewal-cw/ [archived link: https://web.archive.org/web/20140124075455/http://screenrant.com/supernatural-season-10-11-renewal-cw/]

paul rudd. [philsadelphia]. (2018, December 24). sometimes i think about the fact that jensen ackles was offered the role of hawkeye but he was busy with supernatural so he turned it down and now we have j*remy r*nner instead and i get ....... SO bitter [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/philsadelphia/status/1077401977657675776

 Prahl, Amanda. (2019, November 26). 15 Actors Who Were Almost Cast as Your Favorite Avengers. Popsugar. Retrieved from  https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/photo-gallery/46952214/image/46952318/Jensen-Ackles-as-Hawkeye

Saucedo, Robert. (2010a, February 25). The Office star Among Contenders to Wield America's Shield. Inside Pulse. Retrieved from  https://insidepulse.com/2010/02/25/the-office-star-among-contenders-to-wield-americas-shield/

Saucedo, Robert. (2010b, July 26). Jeremy Renner Confirmed as Hawkeye in The Avengers Movie. Inside Pulse. Retrieved from  https://insidepulse.com/2010/07/26/jeremy-renner-confirmed-as-hawkeye-in-the-avengers-movie/ 

Sharf, Zack. (2018, May 3). 13 Actors Who Almost Became Avengers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Indie Wire. Retrieved from  https://www.indiewire.com/gallery/actors-turned-down-marvel-cinematic-universe/

Singer, Matt. (2018, March 29). Please Stop Sharing Bad Articles. Screencrush. Retrieved from https://screencrush.com/why-you-should-never-share-bad-articles/

"Did I audition for Captain America? No, I did not," Ackles says during a sit-down interview for EW's The Boys season 3 cover shoot. "I don't necessarily know, was that an auditioning kind of a thing? I feel like they just met with people on that."

Ackles further clarifies that he "never got the opportunity to even talk to anybody" about the Cap job because of his busy schedule.

[Top image description: screenshot of anonymous ask to @fandomdebunker​ that says “Hi! Could you debunk this, please? castielandhisbluebox(.)tumblr(.)com/post/53186071103/so-i-heard-a-comment-that-gay-and-even-bisexual-men - I don’t think Misha was ever confirmed as being bi. This type of rumor is pretty pointless and not cool for LGBT people who might be being falsely led on.” Note that this link leads to a page which is no longer available but is described below.]

UPDATE April 25, 2022: The rumor that Misha Collins is bisexual is DEBUNKED.

At a Misha Collins dinner panel Friday, April 23rd, 2022 at the Creation Ent New Jersey Convention (NJCON), Misha responded to an audience question in a way that implied he is bisexual:

https://twitter.com/jaistiel/status/1517725756591378432 tweet with video

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/vulqan/682343344854138880 video shared on tumblr

Both linked videos have transcriptions, this is the one by @vulqan​:

 [description: Misha Collins standing at a podium addressing an audience. transcript as follows: Misha: [stuttering] by a show of force, how many of you would consider yourselves introverts? [pause, audience chatter] Misha: how many extroverts? [pause] Misha: and how many bisexuals? [pause, audience WOOOO, laughter, chatter] person filming: where did that come from? someone else: Misha, you didn’t raise your hand for any of them. Misha: i’m all three. [dismissive hand motion] um. i, i— [laughs] see, it would’ve been weird if i had said “by show of hands, how many bisexuals in the audience” but i feathered it into another question there to make it socially acceptable. end transcript/description.]

This story was picked up by multiple gossip and entertainment news outlets over the weekend including Perez Hilton and Out.com.

However, on Monday April 25th after the con, Misha responded to and clarified on twitter with this twitter thread [https://twitter.com/mishacollins/status/1518712541853093888]:

[Description: 5-tweet thread by Misha Collins on April 25, 2022. Tweet 1: I want to deeply apologize for misspeaking this weekend. At a fan convention in New Jersey, when I was talking with the audience I said that I was “all three” things: an introvert, an extrovert and a bisexual. 1/5 (thread emoji) Tweet 2: My clumsy intention was to wave off actually discussing my sexuality, but I badly fumbled that and understand that was seen as me coming out as bisexual. 2/5 Tweet 3: This was not my intention so I need to correct the record: I am not bisexual. I happen to be straight, but I am also a fierce ally and the last thing I want to do is falsely co-opt the struggles of the LGBTQIA+ community. 3/5 Tweet 4: I believe and fully support that we need to sanctify the human right to express our identities honestly and to be free to love whomever we choose openly. 4/5 Tweet 5: I am deeply sorry for the clumsiness of my language. I want to be a better ally and I feel sick to my stomach that I might have done anything to make things worse. I’m trying to learn, trying to do better and I will keep listening.

 Thanks and I’m sorry,

Misha 5/5 end description]

An archived version of this thread is available here: https://t.co/uxSleFvZgx

Given this statement by Misha Collins in his own words describing his own sexuality, any rumors that Misha Collins is bisexual are reliably Debunked.

Notes:

We note that sexuality and identity can be fluid and people learn new things about themselves all the time and that this post is accurate as of April 2022.

Our original post is included below for reference.

— original post from June 18, 2013 —

Barring any official announcement of his sexuality, the rumor that Misha Collins is bisexual is INDETERMINATE.

This rumor has many points of origin.  The post referred to in Anon’s ask can be found here and lists Misha among openly gay or “gray area” sexuality actors.

We were unable to find publicly documented evidence from a reliable source for Misha’s sexuality.  We consider Misha himself to be the only reliable source on this topic, due to the very personal nature of sexual identity.  It is impossible for an outside observer to label another person’s sexuality unless that person has explicitly specified a preferred identity.  External or behavioral criteria is completely irrelevant.

Possible forms of documented evidence would include a serious interview with a legitimate news association, video of him seriously asserting bisexuality at a convention or somewhere else, or a serious twitter announcement.  The operative word here is serious, since Misha is a notorious jokester.

Some of the speculation originates from fan knowledge of Vicki Vantoch’s book, The Threesome Handbook.  Misha is Dr. Vantoch’s husband, and the book includes some information about their marital life, including a mutual girlfriend (tumblr user agentsex owns the book and has uploaded a few pictures of relevant sections).  This obviously supports the idea that Misha is/has been polyamorous, but the book does not discuss Misha’s sexuality.

We do not consider interaction with other actors at conventions to be evidence of sexuality.  Close proximity or physical affection can easily be the result of comfortable friendship and are impossible to definitively interpret from an audience perspective.

Given the lack of documented, reliable sources, we cannot confirm or debunk this rumor. Unless a public, documented, reliable source surfaces, we cannot describe Misha as bisexual (or heterosexual, pansexual, demisexual, etc), since we do not know how he describes himself.  (As always, if we’re missing something on this topic, please let us know!)

Notes:

Regardless of his own sexuality, Misha is a vocal supporter of LGBTQIA+ rights.  At the end of this article, he speaks favorably of Godstiel’s gay rights support.  In this clip from NJCON 2013, he mentions that he has officiated gay weddings (at the 2:15 mark).  

No matter what Misha’s sexuality is, he is under no personal obligation to make a public announcement.  He already shares a great deal of his personal life with fans, such as the cooking videos with his son.

Further discussion of the politics of labeling other people’s sexualities is outside the purview of the (de)Bunker. We are only going to report what has or has not been said; we will not discuss opinions or hypotheses here. (We do all have personal blogs for that sort of thing; feel free to contact us there.) 

ETA: According to this post, Misha was seen at a gay bar, which might account for some of the rumors. However, we do not consider this proof of any kind of sexuality, as it is perfectly possible for a straight man to go to a gay bar.

you may have already been asked this one a hundred times BUT i did try a search on your page and came up with squat (but tumblr searching doesn't always work properly, as we all know).

i'm wondering about whether this jungle photo shoot pic of jackles:

is real or a manip?

THANKS!

It's a photo manipulation, the original is Joe Lara in Tarzan in Manhattan (1989):

[Image from IMDB]

and that pic was probably from → https://www.fanpop.com/clubs/jensen-ackles/images/1295746/title/jensen-manipulations-photo which includes the source url 😱

dailykimrhodes | lobotomygrlboss 1 | lobotomygrlboss 2

start at 29:45 ⤵️

(The original source of the rumor has been archived here and here.)

The rumor that Misha was in the “Making Music” McDonald’s commercial is DEBUNKED.

Misha has confirmed that he played a role in a different McDonald’s commercial called “Cabin Fever,” which we’ve been unable to locate online.

Misha was asked at Asylum 8 about the McDonald’s commercial by someone with an early copy of his acting resume (video source here, the resume can be seen here).  He confirmed that he was in a commercial called “Cabin Fever,” but that only his feet were visible.  The asker said the commercial had been posted to Tumblr.  We’ve been unable to locate it online for the (de)Bunker.

A different commercial titled “Making Music” has been repeatedly posted with captions mistakenly identifying it as Misha’s commercial. Here is one source posted by tumblr user valhallad. (tw: injuries, photo of Misha as a child after a bike accident. Tumblr user jam-watschester also posted the video here, but with a correction indicating that Misha is not actually in the commercial.

We consider Misha and his resume to be reliable sources regarding the name of the commercial; therefore the “Making Music” rumor is DEBUNKED.  (As always, if you have any further information on this topic, particularly a link to the “Cabin Fever” commercial, please let us know!)

This rumour is CONFIRMED.

The rumour that a scripted “I love you” from Dean to Castiel cut 8.17 originates from Misha’s panel at Emerald City Comic-Con in March, 2013.

Below is the relevant quote from Misha; see the video here at the 1:45 mark.

For instance–this I should not be saying–there was a line in the last episode I shot, there was a line where Jensen’s character, whatever his thing is, says, “I love you,” to Castiel….That line didn’t make the final cut, so, for all you know I’m lying.

As Misha himself acknowledges, his reliability at any given convention is uncertain and up to interpretation.

The “I love you” line was also brought up at TorCon, where fans reported its confirmation at a Jensen Ackles meet and greet. Though fan reports may contain bias and inaccurate wording, we have no reason to believe this is an unreliable source. Because of the informal setting, there is no video evidence to examine exactly what Jensen said or how he said it. You can check out the post we made on this subject here. 

Robbie Thompson at Burcon has confirmed the existence of the line himself. According to Mr. Thompson, the line was subsequently replaced by “We’re family.“ 

Robbie laughed and started talking about how his intention really doesn’t matter, since it’s all about what we take away from the show (especially since we were asking about his intention for a line that didn’t even make it into the show).  He then added, though, that if we wanted to know what his intention was with that line, just to look at the line that replaced it- “We’re family.”  He also said that the lines “We need you” and “I need you” weren’t originally in the script, so he doesn’t actually know who added those lines.

This information was gathered during a private conversation, but the answer was given to a member of the (de)bunker and we consider this a reliable source.

As the existence of the line has been verified by Misha Collins, Jensen Ackles, and Robbie Thompson, we consider this line to be genuine and the rumor Confirmed. 

(As always, if you have any further information on this topic, please let us know!)

Notes:

Whether or not Misha seems sincere at a convention, he can only be a reliable source for topics directly related to his job or personal experiences on the set.  Any insight he has into the writing or production processes is limited at best.

The (de)Bunker is definitely available to answer rumors of any age.  Whether or not the answers are already generally known, it’s still useful to have them in one convenient list for future reference.

Update: The source of the "I love you” line may also be the outtakes from the crypt scene, as seen in the season 8 gag reel. Though, this doesn’t clear up the question of whether it was a product of Misha and Jensen messing around, or a line that was originally in the script! 

Update 10/20/13: This rumor is now confirmed by Jensen Ackles!  Here is the current post.

Update 6/30/21: Script pages shared on twitter

I was going to write up a post in the format of @messier51 's Media Journalism is a Giant Game of Telephone, but I'm up to 9+ single spaced pages in a Google Doc so here's the TL;DR version in a format inspired by @fandomdebunker

Today I did a Google search with the terms "Jensen Ackles" "Hawkeye" and took a cap of the top hits:

Let’s play follow the source on those hits:

The Things (Charr 2020) → Indie Wire (Sharf 2018) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

Indie Wire (Sharf 2018) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

Showbiz Cheat Sheet (Greg Brian 2020) → Indie Wire (Sharf 2018) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

CBR (Curovic 2017)  → no source (clickbait listicle)

Quora (Light 2019)

Indie Wire (Sharf 2018) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

Warped Factor (Geek Dave 2014) → Collider (Goldberg 2010) → THR's Heat Vision Blog (Kit 2010)

Looper (Boone 2016) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

CBR (Curovic 2017)  → no source (clickbait listicle)

Popsugar (Prahl 2019) → Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) → IGN (Goldman 2014)

All roads lead back to Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014):

Ackles is rumored to have given up the role of Hawkeye in The Avengers, and Marvel Studios continues to remind him of its interest in bringing him in to its ever-growing Cinematic Universe. On top of that, Ackles' current relationship with Warner Bros. (through Warner Bros. television) is likely to have DC interested as well, as they know exactly how strong – not to mention valuable – he his as an actor.

The Screen Rant tag for "The Avengers" is not a source, it is a time limited pile of clickbait and even using an archived link from January 24, 2014 I found nothing. Am I supposed to click back to 2010 to attempt to find a source? (Yes.) I'm guessing Browne 2010, Keyes 2010a, and Keyes 2010b are supposed to be the sources, not that there is a single word about Hawkeye? 

Oh, and sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Screen Rant (Ocasio 2014) piece where you’ll see a link to Goldman 2014: Ocasio 2014 is basically a copy/paste of this article. 

Here's the complete text of  Goldman 2014:

The last show left to originally air on The WB, Supernatural has had an impressively long life, and is now in Season 9. The show not only continues to be one of the strongest performers on The CW, but its ratings have been up this season from the previous year. Still, just how much longer could the series go?

Asked that question at the TCA (Television Critics Association) press tour today, CW's president, Mark Pedowitz, essentially said the show could go on indefinitely - as long as the ratings continue to hold up and the Supernatural team wants to continue.

Said Pedowitz, "As a fan of the show, who’s seen every episode, as long as I’m here and those numbers hold, God bless them. They can go as long as they want."

As for the potential Supernatural spinoff, which will be set up in a backdoor pilot this season, Pedowitz was asked if that was still in play and he replied, "Yes, very much so. It's set in Chicago. Hunters, monsters... The script just came in."

As for whether any of the main Supernatural characters would appear in the spinoff, which will be centered around new characters, Pedowitz said, "In the spinoff episode, they'd be in it. Whether they're in the series... For me, for spinoffs to work, you have to stand them on their own two legs, so you can only do those crossovers when the time is right, like we did with The Originals. We didn't see Michael Trevino's character, Tyler, until the seventh or eighth episode. By that time, the show was standing up on its own two legs."

So where the hell did (Ocasio 2014) get the Hawkeye bit from? I'm going to speculate it was an internet created rumor stemming from either a dodgy publicist planting the rumor or fan casting back in 2010 becoming lore.

Last night I DM'ed Jules Wilkinson (SupernaturalWiki admin) and she said her "Jensen expert" friend didn't remember him ever mentioning it at a Con or otherwise. Jules thinks it may be an internet created rumor, possibility originating from a publicist: "It's an easy way to get press for a movie without actually confirming anything, and its unlikely an actor will straight out deny being mentioned in relation to a high profile project (although sometimes they do years later)".

Another possibility is fan casting back in 2010 became lore when a writer included it in their articles:

"If Ackles can't be cast in Captain America, can he pretty, pretty please be cast as Hawkeye in the upcoming Avengers film?" (Saucedo 2010a) 

"While the Supernatural geek in me would have preferred Jensen Ackles in the role, I have to say Renner is a nice addition to the cast — really complimenting the caliber of actors Marvel has recruited to don leather costumes and punch each other." (Saucedo 2010b) 

Finally, maybe the dude just made it up for hits.

I do not consider the speculative content in Ocasio 2014 to be a reliable source; therefore, I'm classifying this rumor as DEBUNKED.

Bibliography

Boone, Brian. (2016, November 28 / 2018, April 23). Actors who were almost cast as an Avenger. Looper. Retrieved from  https://www.looper.com/27858/actors-almost-cast-avenger/

Browne, Niall. (2010, February 24). Who Will Be Captain America? Now We (Sort of) Know... Screen Rant. Retrieved from https://screenrant.com/captain-america-mcasting-picks/

Chaar, Michael. (2020, August 7). 'Supernatural' Star Jensen Ackles Turned Down The Chance To Be An Avenger. The Things. Retrieved from https://www.thethings.com/supernatural-star-jensen-ackles-turned-down-the-chance-to-be-an-avenger/

Curovic, Irina. (2017, September 29). "15 Actors Who Turned Down MCU". CBR. Retrieved from https://www.cbr.com/actors-who-turned-down-the-mcu/

Geek Dave. (2014, July 24). The Actors Who Could've Been The Avengers. Warped Factor. [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20140808121212/http://www.warpedfactor.com/2014/07/the-actors-who-couldve-been-avengers_21.html

Goldberg, Matt. (2010, February 24). The First Avenger: Captain America Short-List Includes John Krasinski, Scott Porter, Garrett Hedlund, Jensen Ackles. Collider. Retrieved from https://collider.com/the-first-avenger-captain-america-short-list-includes-john-krasinski-scott-porter-garrett-hedlund-jensen-ackles-and-others/

Goldman, Eric. (2014, January 15). The CW President on How Much Longer Supernatural Can Go and the Status of the Spinoff. IGN. Retrieved from  https://www.ign.com/articles/2014/01/15/the-cw-president-on-how-much-longer-supernatural-can-go-and-the-status-of-the-spinoff 

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Wanting to know what happened and why is a reasonable reaction to feeling hurt! (Also trying to figure stuff out is fun!)

But try to remember that we use the same critical thinking skills in fandom spaces as we do in the rest of the real world. If you want to know how Q and antivax happens, this is the same process (different stakes). Incorrect information gets shared and partially true statements are used to support it, and you get enough information that you believe it! Because look how much there is! Except it all depends on key things being true (they're not).

I guess I'm just asking y'all to think carefully about what you are sharing, because even if you think maybe it's just a fun joke, some people are going to wholly buy into a big fancy made up story. And if you want to believe it..... Fine? That's your choice. But like, consider asking yourself why. What's so important about this particular narrative, that it's better. Does it make you feel better? Does it make you feel like you're in on some special secret?