10 Actors Who Took YEARS To Reprise Famous Roles
Time changes all things, sometimes for the better.
When any hugely successful film franchise finally comes to its planned end, audiences can be left wanting more. Even when characters are killed off and everyone seemingly gets a fitting end, if you gave fans a chance to see more, they'll usually lap it up.
And sometimes - to the collected delight of every studio's accountant - nostalgia hits just right and interest in a franchise renews decades later. That can even happen when the franchise initially ended on a down-note, because nostalgia and time are great healers.
The more movies we make, the more opportunity there is for franchises to draw back on their own lore and bring back characters who had been retired years earlier, or for a series that seemed over to time jump forward with a new release. And some stars ahve already gone back after seriously long hiatuses...
10. Will Smith As Agent J
Years to Reprise Role: 10
The first MIB came out in 1997. Agent J, played by Will Smith, is a cop turned MIB agent and rookie partner to Agent K. The film is a funny, fast-paced sci-fi story with wonderful chemistry between it's two leads. It was an instant hit, and sequel was released 5 years later. It was poorly received, and seemed to have killed the franchise. It took another ten years before the third in the series was released.
Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones reprise their roles. A time travel plot has Will Smith as Agent J interacting with both his Agent K, and a younger version of his partner. The movie made up for the failings of the sequel and grossed $624 million worldwide.