Star Trek: Picard's Santiago Cabrera was going to be Aquaman

Santiago Cabrera spent two seasons on Star Trek: Picard playing Captain Cristobal Rios, a renegade captain who was once a member of Starfleet. Though his character was dropped, albeit with a slightly understandable wrap-up at the end of season two, he was missed in season three. Unfortunately, the budget wouldn't allow for all of the stars from the past two season of Picard to return as the actors from Star Trek: The Next Generation were coming aboard in another shot at a goodbye movie for the former series.

Cabrera moved on and has since been seen in The Flight Attendant and The Cleaning Lady and has a starring role in Apple TV's Land of Women. Long before any of these series, though, the South American actor was prepping for another role. In 2007, he'd been tapped to play Aquaman in Justice Leage: Immortal. Cabrera had already gone to Australia to meet with the movie's director, George Miller and even tried on the Aquaman suit before the 2007-2008 writers' strike occurred. That shelved the project, and supposedly, after the success of The Dark Knight, the movie was cancelled altogether. [via Gamesradar.com]

"Technically, I was Aquaman in 2007 when the writer’s strike hit. Just before, we went to Australia, I was with George Miller — I’m just such a fan, I think he’s phenomenal. And I had a little communication with him. My friend Tom Burke, who was fantastic in Furiosa, which I just loved, he was like, “Hey, George says ‘hi.’” It was a feeling like, would you like to be a superhero? The strike hit, so they put [Justice League: Mortal, which remained shelved] on hold. But just being in his world, I went to Wētā, Peter Jackson’s FX company, where I tried the costume on. So it felt very real for a second there. But at the same time, it was like: Don’t do these things. In this business, until it’s all out there, until you’re at the premiere and you’re talking about it like I am now, it’s never real. Clearly, I was excited for that one. So if anything came again, I feel, why not? I’d love to go into the villain territory though, I think I’d enjoy it."

- Santiago Cabrera

Cabrera naturally was excited about the project, telling The Hollywood Reporter, that "it felt very real there for a second." And he would definitely be interested in joining either the Marvel Universe or the DC Comics family if the opportunity presented itself. There's a long line of villains in both of those universes, and hopefully, he'll be given the chance to make up for the missed opportunity.