Joshua Jackson nearly played one of the screen's most iconic superheroes - and he now has his sights set on another hero. Talking to MTV, Jackson said that he was nearly cast as Batman in Batman Begins.

"I went and did the screen test," Jackson said. "I was one the last four or five guys [up for the role of Batman.]"

And while Jackson would've liked to play the character, he has no complaints about who director Christopher Nolan ended up with.

"I don't like to lose any job, but they cast the right guy," he said. "I mean, Christian Bale was excellent. I don't really think of myself in a sort of comic book hero way, you know what I mean? This might be why I didn't get that job."

While Jackson didn't get the part, it had nothing to do with him not understanding the psyche of the character. Jackson described his view of Batman:

Batman is a man dealing with a deeply f-ed up childhood that has now carried itself forward. As a grown man he dresses up as a bat, goes and kicks the shit out of people at night. That's a dark place. And, you know, he is not a super hero so it hurts. He is obviously some sort of sadist. It's not funny, the infliction and the feeling of pain.

Despite his deep understanding of Batman/Bruce Wayne, Jackson actually thinks he would be a better fit for another comic superhero who became a hero due to losing a parental figure in an act of violence - Marvel Comic's Spider-Man.

"You know, honestly, out of the big super heroes the guy that I would most naturally be a fit to play is Spider-Man, but that one is pretty well locked up," Jackson said. "And, frankly, I'm too old to play that character because the parable of Spider-Man is the teenager going through puberty."

Locked up? But as of now, Tobey Maguire, who played the part of Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the first three films directed by Sam Raimi hasn't signed on for the inevitable Spider-Man 4.

"Well then, yeah," Jackson laughed. "That was really subtle of me putting my name in the hat."