Evelyn - The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
After winning the Oscar forThe Constant Gardenerit was only a matter of time beforeRachel Weiszrealized that she was far too good to reprise her role as Evelyn Carnahan in anotherMummyfilm. Hilariously enough, in the same year she would win for Best Supporting Actress she had actuallyexpressed interestin aMummysequel.
In other words, had they only made this film a year or two earlier they probably would have got her. But by the time production began she dropped out becauseshe didn’t like the script, so they replaced her withMariaBello. You can’t really blame Weisz. This film has yeti fights in it.
Night King - Game Of Thrones
There’s no official reason why the role of the Night King was switched from the extremely creepyRichard Blaketo stuntmanVladimir Furdik. Not even the actorsseem to know. But if we had to guess, we’d say it was because the showrunners didn’t think the role required an actual actor. They were wrong.
The Night King might not have much to say, but Blake’s facial expressions in the first five seasons brought a sinister sense of impending doom to the performance. It’s a subtle change that we’re all going to lament as this zombified Blue Man Group reaches their final destination.
Batman - Batman & Robin
What a gradual downfall the role of Batman took between the late 80s and late 90s! We’re going to go out on a limb and say that regardless of how you feel about theZack Snyderfilms,Ben Affleckis a great choice on par withChristian Bale’s previous portrayal.
And if you twisted our arms, we’d even giveVal Kilmera pass on this, putting all the blame on poorGeorge Clooney. Solely because if we had to pick one qualification for the role of Bruce Wayne, it would be “handsome and productive member of society that may or may not kill animals on their downtime."
Alex Murphy - Robocop 3
Nobody expects you to remember or have even seenRobocop 3, so you’ll probably just have to take our word for it when we say that the film considerably suffered for the lack ofPeter Wellerin the Alex Murphy role. That said, it suffered for a lot of things despite having robot ninjas and a jetpack sequence.
And if you think that it doesn’t make a difference who is in that Robocop costume, keep in mind that even replacement actorRobert John Burkewould disagree. The costume itself was apparentlyhell to wearsince it was recycled from the second film, and therefore wasn’t fitted for the new occupant.
Bruce Banner - The Hulk
However you feel about directorAng Lee’sHulkfilm from 2003, the role of Bruce Banner is best portrayed by an actor with the subtle waft of weakling nerdom. A real noogie receptacle.
BothEric BanaandMark Ruffalogave off that glorious waft. And whileEdward Nortonis a great actor, something about his performance ultimately failed to sell the character. Maybe it’s his status as an actor overshadowing the role, or perhaps it was simply just a terrible film (and it was).
Kevin McCallister - Home Alone 4
To be totally honest, we’ve never seenHome Alone 4. So if any of you hardcore fans (Aloners? Alonenthusiasts?) are super angry about this then we are deeply sorry. But there’s no way you can replaceMacaulay Culkinwith some other weiner kid for the role of Kevin McCallister. That should be illegal to do.
And you know what? Same goes for the role of Marv. There’s nothing wrong with replacementFrench Stewart, but he’s noDaniel Sternand never will be. Also, did you know that this movie is apparently about Kevin saving a prince from kidnapping after learning that his parents are getting a divorce?
The Flintstones - Viva Rock Vegas
Okay – much like Home Alone 4, we have never actually seen this movie. All we do know is that you may’t takeRick Moranisand turn him intoStephen Baldwinand expect to get away with it. Once again, that should be illegal. Whoever did that should be seeing concrete walls for at least a year.
Should we bethisangry about a sequel we never saw to a film that has a22% on Rotten Tomatoes?Probably not. But you can’t deny the serious downgrade in casting from the first film, that along with main characters played byJohn GoodmanandRosie O’Donnellhad villains played byHalle Berryand freakingKyle MacLachlan.
Jack Ryan - Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
The whole appeal ofJack Ryanis that he isn’t an action hero. But as movies and TV became obsessed with turning everyone into a lowkey superhero, this CIA analyst just had to jump on a motorcycle and do some killer tricks. The result is yet another blurry action film lost in the horde of Bourne copycats.
For as awkward a transition it was, at leastBen Affleckdidn’t have elaborate bathroom fights inThe Sum Of All Fears. At least that movie knew it was a political thriller and not a tiresome action reboot. Also it has a sweet nuke scene, and that’s definitely worth a few points.
Agent Mulder - The X-Files
Technically not a recast in the traditional sense – but whenDavid Duchovnychoose to leaveThe X-Files, the series should have thrown money at the problem or died with him. Ultimately that’s what they were forced to do, but not before attempting to replace him (and laterGillian Anderson) for an entire season.
If there’s one thing this list has made very clear, it’s that whether or not an actor is good for a part has nothing to do with talent. And so whileRobert Patrickis fantastic, he’s simply not the lunatic Agent Mulder we all grew to love.
Sarah Connor - Terminator Genisys
This won’t be the last timeTerminator: Genisysappears on this list, because it is an incredibly bad movie. For that reason it’s hard to tell ifEmilia Clarke’s emotionless portrayal of Sarah Connor is the fault of the actress or the half-assed screenwriting.
Either way – the deck was stacked against her from the beginning. Sarah Connor is, after all, a role that can only be played byLinda Hamilton. And yet, for some bizarre reason, the people who went out of their way to de-ageArnold Schwarzeneggerfailed to realize that.
