Cillian Murphy, Ebon Moss-Bachrach Were Eyed to Play Oppenheimer in 2014 Manhattan TV Series
That man who would be Oppenheimer in Universal’s box office hit was also considered to play the world-changing scientist in a short-lived TV series about the race to build an atomic bomb.
Manhattan, which premiered on WGN America almost exactly nine years ago, was set against the backdrop of the clandestine mission to build the world’s first atomic bomb in Los Alamos, N.M. Though the series primarily centered on Frank Winter (played by John Benjamin Hickey), a brilliant and self-destructive physics professor tapped to help lead the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer appeared during the first season and started having a weightier presence in Season 2 — which turned out to be the series’ last.
“When we were casting Oppenheimer, we went through a whole series of different ideas,” Lila Byock (The Leftovers), a writer on Manhattan and the wife of series creator Sam Shaw (Castle Rock), tells Vanity Fair. “There were actually some rock stars we considered,” including David Bowie (who “was not available”) and Beck.
TV Roles Almost Played by Someone Else
As showrunner Shaw explains, “We wanted Oppenheimer to feel both like he possessed a certain undeniable charisma, a presence onstage, but also that he was playing a different instrument. He needed to feel alien, or other, in some ways.”
Revisiting the casting process and those they eyed to play Oppenheimer, Shaw told VF, “A thousand percent, Cillian Murphy was on that list.” As was Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who in recent years has risen to fame as The Bear‘s irrepressible Cousin Richie — though it was ultimately decided he too much invited the audience’s empathy.
Enter Daniel London, who at that time was best known for a role in Fox’s ill-fated Minority Report series and whose resume also included episodes of Nurse Jackie and The Sopranos.
“Oppenheimer was famous for being extremely charming when he needed to be, but also extraterrestrial in his erudition,” Shaw says. “And I think Daniel really got to that.”
Not that London would ever get to truly dive into the role. Manhattan was cancelled after Season 2, though Shaw had a six-season plan in his head — one that would have dropped the bombs on Japan at the close of Season 3, then spent the back half of its run covering the fallout and Cold War conflict.
“It still smarts that we didn’t get to tell the story in its fullness as we had hoped,” Shaw laments.
Manhattan streams om AMC+, Freevee, Tubi and DirecTV Stream.
