10 Iconic Movie Roles Almost Played By Totally Different Actors

While many of the other recastings on this list are at least plausible if not preferable, it seems nigh-impossible for anyone but comedy legend Eddie Murphy to have played Beverly Hills Cop Axel Foley, and doubly impossible that the alternative casting could have been Sylvester Stallone.

But Stallone was in fact on board to play the part of the fast-talking, street-smart Detroit cop who becomes a fish out of water on the streets of LA.

On paper, this kind of makes sense, as Sly is a born enforcer, frequently playing roles on both sides of the thin blue line. And yet, given there was always supposed to be a prominent vein of humour through the film, Stallone's violence-heavy Beverly Hills Cop would have served to make the property little more than another run-of-the-mill action flick, void of the kind of personality and heart Murphy brought to it.

The role proved to be Murphy's big-screen break (without which we might never have seen such delights as The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps), and Stallone continued on his muscle-man trajectory, going on to work the few parts of his Beverly Hills idea that he had creative ownership of into 1986 actioner Cobra.