10 Characters Cruelly Recast Before They Made It Big

Recasting is an aspect of filmmaking we all hate: audiences despise it because it creates a level of inconsistency in the product, and studio executives and the actors themselves are then left worrying whether fans will accept the new casting or outright reject it. This can be particularly troublesome when recasting an already established character, such as The Silence of the Lambs' Clarice Starling shifting from Jodie Foster to Julianne Moore in the sequel Hannibal (and a sucky script certainly didn't help in that case), but what this article is going to look at is those actors who never really had a chance to prove themselves in the first place before being recast. Whatever the reason, these 10 characters were initially played by one actor or actress, yet it wasn't until a subsequent film, by which point the character had been recast, that they met their full potential and became a bigger part of the picture. In many cases it's difficult to imagine the original actor retaining the role later on, though it's still hard not to feel for them being robbed of such a juicy role. As usual, feel free to contribute your own suggestions, and whether you could imagine any of these actors taking on the role once it grew beyond what was originally envisioned.