It’s kind of safe to say that Dolph Lundgren fell off the map after a while. When he appeared in Rocky IV he was awesome as Ivan Drago, the big Soviet boxer that just couldn’t be beaten. You had a good idea that Rocky was going to chop him down to size anyway but he was going to suffer for the effort. But all in all Dolph Lundgren could have been a much bigger star than he turned out to be in his younger years. His talent wasn’t quite up to par just yet but his skills and his presence were absolutely huge and could have carried him through, especially in the 90’s. There were a lot of movies that might have been a little better had he been involved.
Keep in mind these are just ideas of what might have been great, you might have a whole different list.
5. The Terminator-Any of the Terminators
He didn’t really work with Arnold all that much but there’s no way he could have taken the top spot from the original Terminator without a serious fight on his hands. But perhaps the T-1000 or the morphing Terminator from the third movie would have been a good fit, someone that simply looks indestructible and flat out mean like Arnold. He could have been a good fight for Arnold as well upon being made the bad guy.
4. Total Recall-Richter
Micheal Ironside is a great bad guy but it wasn’t all that believable that he’d be a good matchup for Schwarzenegger. Putting Dolph in there could have made the fight a lot more epic and a great deal more meaningful towards the end. They could have still ended it the same way since the line “See you at the party Richter!” was awesome. But the fight between two powerhouses like Dolph and Arnold would have been a dream come true.
3. Demolition Man-Simon Phoenix
Familiarity would have carried this one through since he’d already worked with Stallone in the past and would have some idea of what to expect. Of course there’s nothing to say that he wouldn’t have sent Stallone to the hospital again after a botched stunt, but it still would have played out nicer. Or maybe he could have been one of Phoenix’s thugs, a second in command or something.
2. Hard Target- Pik van Cleef
This would be another instance in which he would have worked with the lead actor before since he and JCVD were in Universal Soldier together. By doing this the familiarity and the impressive stature of van Cleef would have been helped immensely since the two warriors would have looked awesome going at it. And quite honestly Dolph pulls of menacing a little better than Arnold Vosloo.
1. Blade-Deacon Frost
This is one where there might be a lot of arguments, or not since the Blade trilogy has been left to kind of fester and mold after being ridiculed again and again. But making Dolph into Frost would have made a little more sense considering that the skill levels would have matched up a bit more and because while Stephen Dorff can pull of a menacing look and growl he’s still kind of a scrawny guy in comparison.
Oh the world is full of woulda, coulda-beens.
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