Josh Dallas is an actor who is best known for his role in the supernatural drama Manifest.
In the series, Dallas plays Ben Stone, a father who becomes one of the passengers of a flight that goes missing for five years. Of the cast members, Dallas is among the few who have been on the show since the beginning.
And when the show was initially canceled prematurely, Dallas certainly made it clear that he was hoping to conclude their story in a much better way.
Fortunately, Dallas and show’s fans got their wish. In the end, Netflix decided to save Manifest following NBC’s decision to ax the show.
Clearly, fans can look forward to seeing more of Ben Stone. At the same time, however, one can’t help but wonder what other roles Dallas had played prior to getting cast on the show.
Josh Dallas Was Briefly In Marvel
Especially after several years of playing Ben Stone, fans may find it hard to believe that Dallas once starred in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film. Around the time that the MCU had only released a handful of films, Dallas starred in Thor as Fandral, one of Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) closest friends and one of the Warriors Three.
As it turns out, Dallas was supposed to return for Thor: The Dark World. However, that wasn’t possible. By the time production was going to start, the actor was already set to shoot scenes for the ABC drama Once Upon a Time.
“The timing wasn’t right. I’m bummed about it because I had such a great experience and great time making the first film and was really excited about coming back. Marvel and Disney tried to make it work,” Dallas explained during an interview with EW.
“But because of my commitment to Once Upon a Time, I was not going to be able to do both. So I’ll have to hand the reins over to someone else.”
In the end, Marvel decided to recast the part, bringing in Zachary Levi to take Dallas’ place.
Even Before ‘Manifest,’ Josh Dallas Was Quite The TV Star
Dallas actually started out in television, his first roles being small roles in Ultimate Force and Doctor Who. Shortly after, the actor also booked small roles in hit crime dramas Hawaii Five-O and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
Later on, Dallas landed his first major television role, playing David Nolan, a.k.a. Prince Charming in the ABC series Once Upon a Time. For the actor, being on the show was a great way to live out one particular childhood fantasy.
“I guess not really a fairy tale character, but I always wanted to slay dragons, and I always wanted to use swords. It’s a boy’s dream, being able to play this kind of stuff. That’s what’s so great. As an actor, you get to do all this great, fantastical stuff in Fairy Tale land, and then you can go back to Storybrooke. Even though they’re both based in a reality of their own kind, with Storybrooke you can go back and become more real,” the actor told KSiteTV.
“And then you can go to Fairy Tale land and just do these amazing things in the woods, with swords, and horses, and dragons, and ogres, and all kinds of stuff.”
Dallas remained on the show throughout its run, which may explain why he had to turn down Thor 2.
After Reading The Script For ‘Manifest’ Pilot Episode, He Knew He Was ‘In’
After Once Upon a Time ended its run, Dallas initially thought it would be a good idea to have some downtime.
“I wanted to take a little time and have a little bit of space, to rest and shake it off and find something new,” the actor told Collider. But then, in the midst of a pilot season, the script for Manifest fell onto his lap.
And just like that, Dallas knew the last thing he wanted was to take a break.
“I came across Manifest, and I knew that I was in, from the moment that they got on that plane. And then, when they landed 5 ½ years later, I knew that it was something that I wanted to be a part of, and I wanted to play Ben,” Dallas recalled.
“He was a character that jumped out at me because he’s so different, in many ways, from my character on Once Upon a Time. He’s a normal human. He’s very flawed and very complex, and he’s trying to work through that.”
At the moment, Dallas doesn’t seem to have anything else in the works other than Manifest. It seems fans will just have to wait for the show to return for its fourth season.
There were reports that its final run may even extend to a fifth season initially, but Netflix has confirmed that the fourth will be the last.
