LOS ANGELES, April 13 — It’s hard to imagine anyone else as Dom Toretto in the Fast & Furious franchise, but it turns out another actor was offered the role first.

Producer Neal H. Moritz revealed on The Bill Simmons Podcast that Santa Clarita Diet’s Timothy Olyphant was the studio’s first choice.

"I had been working with Paul Walker on another movie, Skulls, and I gave him the script [for The Fast and the Furious],” Moritz said.

"Rob Cohen, who I had made The Rat Pack with, we gave him the script. The two of them liked the idea. And then we had to look for Dom Toretto.

"The studio said, ‘If you can get Timothy Olyphant to play that role we will greenlight the movie… The luckiest thing that ever happened to us is Tim Olyphant turned us down. He’s a great actor. In fact, I’m curious to see what that movie would have been.”

A screengrab from ‘Santa Clarita Diet’ that stars Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant. ― AFP pic

After Olyphant passed, Moritz suggested Diesel, who had produced standout supporting work in Saving Private Ryan and Boiler Room and played the lead role in sleeper hit Pitch Black — and the rest as they say is history.

Vin Diesel has been playing hit character Dom since 2001.

The eighth instalment of the Fast & Furious franchise, The Fate of the Furious, is now showing in Malaysian cinemas.

It stars Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Scott Eastwood, Charlize Theron and Helen Mirren, amongst others.