In our brains, this low-key makes sense (Picture: Getty/FOX)
It’s almost impossible to imagine anyone other that Matthew Morrison playing Mr. Schue in Glee, but it’s now been revealed that the role was written for another famous star.
No, Morrison wasn’t the original choice for the role, as creator Ryan Murphy has shared that he wanted none other than Justin Timberlake to play the teacher.
Will Schuester is, undoubtedly, Morrison’s most famous role, as Mr Schue was one of the two main protagonists from the Fox musical comedy-drama series, as well as student Rachel Berry.
Morrison starred alongside Lea Michele from the show’s pilot episode in May 2009, and remained in the series until 2015.
But, Glee could have been a different show entirely, had the choir director been played by Mr Cry Me A River himself.
Dropping the bombshell on Gleeks everywhere, Murphy said on the And That’s What You REALLY Missed podcast: ‘When we were writing the pilot — I’ve never really talked about this — that pilot was written for Justin Timberlake.’
Matthew Morrison seemed the perfect casting, but Glee could’ve been much darker (Picture: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
He confirmed to podcast hosts Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz, who starred in Glee as Artie Abrams and Tina Cohen-Chang: ‘Mr Schue was written for Justin.’
Alas, Murphy didn’t go divulge any further details, although we now have a million questions.
Why did JT not get the role? Did he turn it down? Can we now have the entire Glee soundtrack re-released with his vocals?
Justin Timberlake was almost one of the leads and fans aren’t all that shocked (Picture: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Fortunately for Glee fans, a second episode of the podcast will land next week, where more of the interview will air and, hopefully, beans will be spilled.
As if that wasn’t a big enough bombshell, Murphy also revealed that he intended for Glee to be a much darker show than what we know it as today – an Mr Schue was meant to be a drug addict!
The first ever script for the show – which didn’t have the name Glee at the time – was written by the show’s co-creator Ian Brennan, and his friend presented the script to Murphy at a gym.
Glee ran from 2009 until 2015 on FOX (Picture: FOX Image Collection via Getty Images)
Reflecting on the early days, Murphy continued on the podcast: ‘Like serendipity, I went to the gym and I was in a towel and a guy went up and handed me a script and he said, “I had a feeling you were in show choir, am I right?” And I was like, “Yeah”,’ adding that Mr Schue was also written to inappropriately touch his students in original drafts.
‘Mr Schue, I believe, was a crystal meth addict in Ian’s script,’ Murphy confessed. ‘The NC-17 version of show choir with a weird protagonist who was unraveling.’
Understandably, Glee fans were quite taken aback by all these revelations, however, after giving them time to sink in, they aren’t so shocked.
‘Finding out the role of Mr. Schue on Glee was written for Justin Timberlake makes so much sense. Like a puzzle piece in my brain I didn’t know was missing finally found,’ one tweeted.
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‘glee reboot with Justin timberlake as a crystal method addicted will shuester bc his little drama school failed and sue is back with vengeance when?’, joked another.
A third begged: ‘give me the timeline where glee was justin timberlake on meth PLEASE.’
Honestly, if JT is down, we’d so be here for the OG version of Glee being brought to the screen…
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Glee could’ve been VERY different.