Canadian actor Dylan Kingwell starred on Netflix’s A Series of Unfortunate Events between 2017-2019. Did you know Kingwell originally auditioned to play a different character than the one(s) he ended up playing on the show?
Already a familiar face at a young age, Canadian actor Dylan Kingwell has appeared in a number of different projects, including The Good Doctor, The 100 and The Returned. However, arguably one of his best-known appearances to date is on the Netflix series A Series of Unfortunate Events.
The series, which was based on novels written by Daniel Handler (as Lemony Snicket), aired on the streaming service between 2017-2019 for 3 seasons. Executive producers on the show included director Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family, Men In Black) as well as Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie Howser MD, How I Met Your Mother).
Kingwell played the dual roles of Duncan and Quigley Quagmire, two-thirds of triplets that also included a sister, Isadora, played by Avi Lake. After recurring in these roles for Season 1, Kingwell became a series regular in the second season, with his involvement becoming even greater. However, fans may be surprised to learn that Kingwell almost had a very different journey with the show, had his original plans come to fruition.
In a recent interview with Courageous Nerd, Kingwell revealed that while he had enjoyed the challenge of playing both Duncan and Quigley, he originally auditioned for the role of Klaus Baudelaire, which instead went to Louis Hynes. The topic came up after the 16-year-old actor was asked whether he had been aware of potentially playing two characters for A Series of Unfortunate Events.
“Initially, actually, what a lot of people don’t know is that I actually auditioned for Klaus at first. I made it pretty far in the process of Klaus. They decided to go with Louis (Hynes) for Klaus”. Kingwell shared, continuing, “Later on, this was maybe only weeks of them deciding Louis for Klaus, they auditioned me. The original audition was just for Duncan. I guess no, I wasn’t aware that I’d be playing two characters.”
Fans of the show can likely agree that Kingwell nailed the roles of Duncan and Quigley, while Hynes was a perfect Klaus on the show. And seeing as the two ended up becoming good friends in real life, perhaps the casting choices worked out how they were supposed to all along.
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