10 Actors Who Won't Be Coming Back For Upcoming Sequels

Either the studios didn't want them... or suddenly they saw sense!

Emily Blunt Sicario
Lionsgate

There are some actors who outright refuse to get on board with sequels. To them, the idea of returning to a franchise is like taking a step backwards. Instead, they prefer to move onto other things projects instead of risking their integrity with a bad follow-up or doing something for mere financial gain. Leonardo DiCaprio, to cite one relevant example, has never made a sequel, and he probably never will. Admirable.

These sorts of actors, of course, are a rarity, for few can resist the temptation of the sequel film - especially in today's climate of cinematic universes and mega franchises. Some actors, like Tom Cruise, seem desperate to have as many franchises on the go at the same time as possible (right now he's right at the helm of a whopping three - which is just a little excessive, don't you think?).

There are a few reasons why an actor might find themselves absent from a sequel: the first is that they chose not to appear in it, either because they weren't being offered enough money or they had a bad experience the first time around. The second is that the story doesn't require them, and so they're written out.

The third - and perhaps the most common - comes down to scheduling conflicts, whereby an actor is unavailable for the length of the shoot and the studio simply refuses to wait...

Whatever the reason, the following actors won't be returning for these sequels...

10. Nicola Peltz - Transformers: The Last Knight

Emily Blunt Sicario
Paramount Pictures

Michael Bay has always enjoyed switching out the female lead in whatever the next Transformers movie happens to be, presumably in a bid to lure more horny teenagers into the theatre on the promise of "a new hot girl." So first Megan Fox was jettisoned after she referred to the director as "Hitler," and then Rosie Huntington-Whiteley found herself axed in the wake of an admittedly stilted performance.

Newcomer Nicola Peltz stepped up to take the spot of female lead in Transformers: Age of Extinction, where she played Mark Wahlberg's daughter, Tessa Yeager.

For the upcoming sequel flick, Transformers: The Last Knight, however, Peltz remains curiously absent from the cast list, though Wahlberg is set to reprise his role as the ridiculously named inventor-turned-fighter Cade Yeager. When asked the reason for Peltz's non-casting, Wahlberg simply stated: "You’ll find out in the movie."

What It Means For The Film:

Given how audiences criticised both Peltz' performance and her character, it seems fairly safe to assume that nobody is going to be all that fussed when they realise that she's not in the movie. It might also be good for Peltz's career, given that the next Transformers flick is almost certainly going to get scathing reviews.

In this post: 
Sicario
 
Posted On: 
Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.