Tim Roth almost played Severus Snape?

It seems so. But according to the MTV Movies Blog, he gave it up for Tim Burton’s remake of Planet of the Apes (2001). Yowch.

Interestingly, I had not considered until now that Alan Rickman is technically too old to play Snape — he was 55 when the first film came out, yet the character is supposed to be the same age as Harry Potter‘s parents, who would have been in their early 30s if they had not been killed by Voldemort when Harry was a baby. Roth was 40 when the first film came out, so he still would have been a little old, but nowhere near as much as Rickman.

Not that I’m complaining. Rickman is great in the role. But I think Roth could have done some interesting things with the character, too.