Robert Pattinson Was Almost An Evil Ex In ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,’ And More Trivia Revealed On 10th Anniversary

It’s been a decade since we discovered bread made us fat, butScott Pilgrim vs. the World’s cult classic status has not dimmed since its release in 2010. Rather, the love for this marvel of star power combined with directorEdgar Wright’s video game stylings has only gotten stronger, and that’s not just because it’s given us a few Marvel stars like Chris Evans and Brie Larson.

On the 10th anniversary of the release ofScott Pilgrim vs. the World, a flood of love for the film from fans and the cast has arrived, along with a flood of new trivia and behind-the-scenes stories. Did you knowRobert Pattinsonwas almost an Evil Ex? That Michael Cera and Chris Evans worked out together? And what’s up with that “no blinking” rule?

Robert Pattinson Was Almost an Evil Ex, and Other Auditions

In an interview withVanity Fair, Wright revealed that a few future stars would audition forScott Pilgrim vs. The World. One of those wasBetty Gilpin,GLOWbreakout andThe Huntstar, who auditioned to play drummer Kim, alongside Oscar nomineeRooney MaraandThe Big SickstarZoe Kazan. Wright said:

“Sometimes there will be an [actor] I see… Like when I saw Betty Gilpin inGLOW. I was like, ‘Why does this woman look familiar? She’s amazing, oh, my God. Why do I know her? Why does that name sound familiar?’ And it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, she read forScott Pilgrim.’ That’s what I do feel quite good about,” he said, “because I looked at my notes again and I had written by Betty Gilpin: ‘She’s great.’ At least I feel good about the fact that even if people lost out on the roles… there’s a lot of people who were kind of next.”

It’s interesting to think about how career trajectories may have changed if Wright went with a different casting decision. Like Chris Evans, who would soon hit it big as Captain America after playing the evil ex-boyfriend Lucas Lee, could have lost out to future Batman, Robert Pattinson. Another Marvel star Sebastian Stan also auditioned for Sex Bob-omb lead singer Stephen Stills, which ultimately went to Mark Webber. Wright was satisfied with the cast he ended up with, but “even when I look at the list of people who did audition, they’re all people I would still kill to work for,” he said.

An Edgar Wright movie with all theScott Pilgrimcast-offs (just think: Pattinson, Gilpin, Mara, Kazan, and Stan all in one movie!) would almost be as star-studded asScott Pilgrimended up being.

Michael Cera and Chris Evans Would do Push-Ups Together

Here’s a funny image for you: Michael Cera and Chris Evans doing push-ups together. The physical training forScott Pilgrimwas apparently intense, Cera toldThe Hollywood Reporter, likening the shoot to a summer camp that motivated him to get in shape. “We would all wake up in the morning and do training,” Cera recalled. “Beat the hell out of our bodies, then later in the day we’d be rehearsing again.”

Wright would get up at eight in the morning to work out with the main cast too, even those who weren’t in any fight scenes like Kieran Culkin. “The kids who weren’t in the fight scenes felt left out that they weren’t doing any of the training, so they just came along for the hell of it just to train. It was so fun,” Wright said, comparing the shoot to a “20-somethings playground.” One thing you won’t see on the playground: Cera and Evans in a push-up battle. Wright described:

“Seeing Michael and Chris Evans doing push-ups together is just… this is why you get into the business, for these, sort of, beautiful moments.”

During thequarantine live-readforScott Pilgrim vs. the World, the cast kept making jokes about being able to blink, which referred to a rule that Wright made during filming. “It was this idea of making it look more like live-action animation,” Wright said, “people would look much more animated.”

Though the blinks could be taken out digitally, this practical technique worked, though it got Wright “the nickname ‘the blink nazi,'” Wright said with a laugh. “It’s a funny thing that when you do it, it creates a very interesting presence.”

Edgar Wright Shares Behind-the-Scenes Photos

In honor of the 10th anniversary, Wright shared behind-the-scenes photos from pre-production and during production ofScott Pilgrim vs. The World. You can see all the photos in Wright’s Twitter threads below.

Tomorrow is the actual 10th anniversary of#ScottPilgrimVsTheWorldand I’ll be sharing some rare behind the scenes photos, linking to new articles and maybe share a little OST news (!). In the meantime though, how about a metric tonne of photos from before we even shot a frame?pic.twitter.com/cEBe1n1Tjl

— edgarwright (@edgarwright)July 06, 2025

10 years ago today#ScottPilgrimVsTheWorldwas released. Looking back on this magical voyage, I’m even more grateful to have made a crazy movie with Universal with THIS cast & crew. To thank all the fans this last decade, I give you the epicness of these behind the scenes photos.pic.twitter.com/Qp7u3q0Ypi

— edgarwright (@edgarwright)August 04, 2025