Miscast Actors In Comic Book Movie Roles That You Recast?

[Detective Conan]

Which actors in comic book movie roles that you felt were miscast or a poor fit and what actor would you recast that role with instead?

Miscast: Jessica Alba as Sue Storm in Fantastic Four (2005).

Better In Role: Charlize Theron.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Miscast: Matthew Goode as Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt in Watchmen (2009)

Better In Role: Michael Fassbender (complete with bleached hair!)

 

[Batmannerism]

Miscast: Matthew Goode as Ozymandias/Adrian Veidt in Watchmen (2009)

Better In Role: Michael Fassbender (complete with bleached hair!)

Wow. That's good ( rather than Goode).


Miscast: Ryan Reynolds in Green Lantern

Better in role: Nathan Fillion .....but in 2004.


Miscast: Malin Akerman in Watchmen

Better in Role: Katheryn Winnick

 

[Mandon Knight]

Miscast – Halle Berry as Storm

Shoe-in would have been Angela Bassett

 

[jolldan]

Marvel

Miscast: Brie Larson as Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel (2019).

Better In Role: Katheryn Winnick.

DC

Miscast: Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Freeze in Batman & Robin (1997).

Better In Role: Ed Harris

Fox X-Men

Miscast: Anna Paquin as Rogue in X-Men (2000) X-2 (2002) & X-Men Last Stand (2006)

Better In Role: Brittany Murphy​

Other

Miscast: Sean Connery as Allan Quartermain in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

Better In Role: John Hurt​

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Miscast: Jennifer Garner as Elektra Natchios in 'Daredevil'/'Elektra'

Better in Role: Angelina Jolie

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Miscast: David Thewlis as Ares in Wonder Woman (2017). I like Thewlis and I get what they were going for, but IMO it just didn't work.

Better In Role: My problem is with the approach as well as the casting. I'd have taken a more typical tack. I think Mark Strong would have done a great job (I know he gets suggested for just about every comic book villain, and of course he was cast in Shazam!). Maybe Gerard Butler.

 

[MadVillainy]

Miscast: David Thewlis as Ares in Wonder Woman (2017). I like Thewlis and I get what they were going for, but IMO it just didn't work.

Better In Role: My problem is with the approach as well as the casting. I'd have taken a more typical tack. I think Mark Strong would have done a great job (I know he gets suggested for just about every comic book villain, and of course he was cast in Shazam!). Maybe Gerard Butler.

For Ares my choices were always Clive Owen or Daniel Craig, but with what they were going for Thewlis worked. I wouldn't say he's miscast because he's cast perfectly as written. The problem was the writing for the character imo

 

[Schlosser85]

Miscast – Halle Berry as Storm

Shoe-in would have been Angela Bassett

Some of the posts in here are pretty ehhhh, but I'm 100% down with this. Bassett doesn't get nearly enough good roles.

 

[Dark Raven]

Miscast: Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane

Better in role: Jennifer Love Hewitt


Miscast: ScarJo as Black Widow

Better in role: Emily Blunt

 

[Dark Raven]

Miscast: Jennifer Garner as Elektra Natchios in 'Daredevil'/'Elektra'

Better in Role: Angelina Jolie

I would've preferred Mia Maestro as Elektra than either of those two. Mia Maestro played the half sister of Jennifer Garner in Alias. They went for the wrong sister.

 

[Batmannerism]

Miscast: David Thewlis as Ares in Wonder Woman (2017). I like Thewlis and I get what they were going for, but IMO it just didn't work.

Better In Role: My problem is with the approach as well as the casting. I'd have taken a more typical tack. I think Mark Strong would have done a great job (I know he gets suggested for just about every comic book villain, and of course he was cast in Shazam!). Maybe Gerard Butler.

Gerard Butler would have made a more imposing Ares for certain. I too understand the concept was making Ares an outwardly unassuming character who is secretly manipulating the war - but it just didn't come off in the reveal and he became a generic CGI monster.

If we're going for older British/Irish actors then Gabriel Byrne could have pulled it off. Malcolm McDowell could have easily done better than Thewlis, as could Ralph Fiennes or Jason Isaac's.

The big problem that WW had as a film was that the supporting characters were very badly written - especially the villains. However that was completely overshadowed by Gal Gadot's utterly note perfect and brilliant performance in the lead - so getting pretty much every thing else wrong was okay.

Marvel

Miscast: Brie Larson as Captain Marvel in Captain Marvel (2019).

Better In Role: Katheryn Winnick.

DC

Miscast: Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Freeze in Batman & Robin (1997).

Better In Role: Ed Harris

Fox X-Men

Miscast: Anna Paquin as Rogue in X-Men (2000) X-2 (2002) & X-Men Last Stand (2006)

Better In Role: Brittany Murphy​

Other

Miscast: Sean Connery as Allan Quartermain in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003)

Better In Role: John Hurt​

I would have gone with JLaw as Captain Marvel, I actually like Arnold as Mr Freeze, he was so awful that he was good, and maybe Terrence Stamp as Quartermain - although Connery wasn't bad - to be fair both B and R and LOEG are terrible movies, regardless of casting.

 

[Dark Raven]

Sean Connery turned down Gandalf, then later went for Quartermain even though he didn't really understand the role. He clearly picked the wrong franchise.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

If we're going for older British/Irish actors then Gabriel Byrne could have pulled it off. Malcolm McDowell could have easily done better than Thewlis, as could Ralph Fiennes or Jason Isaac's.

Some great suggestions. As I said, my problem was with the casting and the approach. But if they were determined to take the approach that they did, any one of those guys could have done it


Edit: I guess the only problem with those guys (certainly Byrne, McDowell, and Isaacs) might have been that as good as they are, when they turn up in a movie you kind of expect them to be the bad guy, so the 'reveal' wouldn't have been such a surprise. Having said that, I can't be alone in having already guessed that Thewlis would turn out to be Ares, so for me that wouldn't have made any difference.

 

[DOBSON10]

Miscast: Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor

Better In Role: Literally anyone... But my choices would have been Mark Strong or Woody Harrelson.

 

[Batmannerism]

Miscast: Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor

Better In Role: Literally anyone... But my choices would have been Mark Strong or Woody Harrelson.

Mark Strong would be good as any villain in any film full stop. Really they should stop casting anyone else and just cast Mark Strong as a villain in every single film.

Love the Woody Harrelson idea though - an inspired casting choice.

 

[MadVillainy]

Nah Woody Harrelson is great, but he's not Lex Luthor.
Strong, as with most villain roles, is a good choice.

I would've gone with Bradley Cooper or Jon Hamm. Adam Driver was considered and would've been great too. He might look weird bald tho

 

[Dark Raven]

Some great suggestions. As I said, my problem was with the casting and the approach. But if they were determined to take the approach that they did, any one of those guys could have done it


Edit: I guess the only problem with those guys (certainly Byrne, McDowell, and Isaacs) might have been that as good as they are, when they turn up in a movie you kind of expect them to be the bad guy, so the 'reveal' wouldn't have been such a surprise. Having said that, I can't be alone in having already guessed that Thewlis would turn out to be Ares, so for me that wouldn't have made any difference.

They could've had one of these actors playing a different role, and then Thewlis revealed as the villain. But then it turns out that Thewlis is just a facade and Ares reveals his real appearance as one of these other actors for the finale battle as the Thewlis persona disappears. That way it wouldn't have looked as silly with WW fighting him.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

DC

Miscast: Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr Freeze in Batman & Robin (1997).

Better In Role: Ed Harris

Cam he make good on the ice puns? I don't think so.

Miscast: Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane

Better in role: Jennifer Love Hewitt

I don't think Kirsten was miscast, but I believe Neve Campbell could have been good her shoes.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

I wouldn’t necessarily say Hugh was a miscast, but I would’ve liked to have seen what Gary Sinise would’ve done in the role of Logan.

 

[Dark Raven]

I wouldn’t necessarily say Hugh was a miscast, but I would’ve liked to have seen what Gary Sinise would’ve done in the role of Logan.

Gary Sinise seems like he would've been better for Reed Richards when he was younger.

 

[DOBSON10]

Mark Strong would be good as any villain in any film full stop. Really they should stop casting anyone else and just cast Mark Strong as a villain in every single film.

Love the Woody Harrelson idea though - an inspired casting choice.

I get that Mark Strong gets fancast as alot of villains, I do, but at the end of the day, he was a great choice for Lex Luthor. It's a role that he fits like a glove, and not just because he's bald. I see this "inspired choice" term get thrown around alot, and I disagree with it. Picking someone like Strong for Luthor might not be "inspired" but it would have gotten us a great Lex Luthor interpretation. He's a very good actor, that just happens to have a similar look to the character and is good at playing bad guys... so what if it's not "out of the box"... what it is, is damn near perfect casting and he would have nailed it. And for the record, it's the only villain role I fancast him for because he's basically perfect for the role.

"Inspired" casting got us the "out of the box" pick of Jesse Eisenberg... and IMO, it was one of the worst performances of All-Time. It instantly destroyed their ability to use the character again, when the character should have been a reoccurring foundation character of the Universe they were trying to build at the time.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Gary Sinise seems like he would've been better for Reed Richards when he was younger.

Nah, he's too gruff to be Reed. Now Kevin Kline back in the day, maybe.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Mark Strong would be good as any villain in any film full stop. Really they should stop casting anyone else and just cast Mark Strong as a villain in every single film.

 

[Dark Raven]

Nah, he's too gruff to be Reed. Now Kevin Kline back in the day, maybe.

He's not too gruff for Reed. He always came across as the intelligent leader type who was also a man of action in CSI: NY, which is how I think Reed should be rather than a weak nerdy type. I would never have called him gruff in that show, or in Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders.