Recently, he came this close to landing one of the most highly-sought-after star-making roles in Hollywood. But don’t feel too bad for stocky Swede Alexander Skarsgård, because he returns next week for the second season of the hit series “True Blood” — which takes a bit of the sting out of the fact that he won’t be Thor.

“Yeah, I met with [Marvel Studios chief] Kevin [Feige] a few times and the directorKenneth Branagh,” the affable Skarsgard admitted when asked about rumors that he was one of the last people cut before Chris Hemsworth was chosen to play the Norse god of thunder . “There was definitely some truth in that, yeah.”

When I told him I thought he had the perfect look to bring the comic book hero to life, Skarsgard had a simple — and honest — response: “So did I.”

The casting process got so far along, in fact, that Skarsgard — who plays Eric Northman, a secretive vampire Sheriff on “True Blood” — even filmed an audition in the complete Thor costume, hammer and all.

“Yeah,” he remembered of slipping into the hero’s threads. “That was pretty fun.”

But, even though he ultimately lost the role to Hemsworth, Skarsgard told me that he’ll keep an open mind and remain hopeful to someday land another comic-book-based role. And, since Feige has made recent statements saying that the people he met during the “Thor” auditions could be brought back for other Marvel roles, we might still see him in Spandex and a cowl someday.

“It depends on the circumstances,” Skarsgard said of possible roles in “Captain America” or beyond. “It’s pretty hard to say [whether I’d take another comic role]. It depends on the circumstances – who the director is, and what the character is. But of course [I’d be interested in looking into it]. I think it’s every little boy’s dream; it would be a person’s dream to play an action hero.”

What do you think? Would Skarsgard have made a better Thor than Hemsworth, or did Marvel choose the right man to protect Midgard?

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