Nicolas Cage Passed On Syfy’s “Happy”

Was it close to happening?

In the original pilot episode of Happy, the role of the titular character was originally voiced by Bobby Moynihan but later went to Patton Oswalt and the rest is history. But, was that the ONLY casting change that could’ve gone down?

In a new interview with SciFiNowMagazine, Academy Award-winning actor Nicolas Cage revealed that director Brian Taylor (whose credits include Happy!) had actually sent the actor the script for Happy!, but wasn’t quite ready to make the switch from movie actor to TV actor.

“I kind of wanted to stay making motion pictures as long as possible, and so when he sent me this script to a show called ‘Happy’, which I thought was very good by the way, I said I don’t think I’m ready to make the format change.”

Now, Nicolas doesn’t say which role he would’ve played as, but it’s not a difficult leap of the imagination that the actor would’ve been considered for the role of “Nick Sax” of which Christopher Meloni currently plays. As it stands, all things happen for a reason, and the first season of Happy! was very good of which you can see our season review for here.

Synopsis:

Nick Sax is an alcoholic ex-cop turned hitman who lives his days with drugs and cynicism. After he is shot and left for dead, he is revived while in the care of paramedics and can now see a small, blue, goofy cartoonish winged horse named Happy. Happy is the imaginary friend of a little girl named Hailey, who has been kidnapped by a deranged man dressed as Santa Claus. Happy escapes to seek Nick’s help in finding her and reveals that Hailey is Nick’s estranged daughter. Nick reluctantly agrees and he and his new “partner” now must work together to save her.