10 Major Movie Roles That Were Recast (And Made A LOT Worse)

7. Ben Affleck and Chris Pine - The Sum of All Fears/Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

batman forever two face billy dee williams tommy lee jones
Paramount Pictures

While the debate rages on over who made for the best live-action iteration of Jack Ryan, it would be fair to say that Ben Affleck and Chris Pine don't feature in the conversation. The superior version of Tom Clancy's literary creation is a clear two-horse race between Alec Baldwin and Harrison Ford.

Rebooting and focusing on Ryan's early years was a sensible if uninspired creative direction for the franchise, but neither Affleck or Pine brought much to the role at all. It didn't help that the movies they starred in were nothing to write home about either, but in both The Sum of All Fears and Shadow Recruit, the leading man is about as bland and formulaic an action hero as you can get.

John Krasinski is doing solid work on the Amazon exclusive version, and based on the last two reboots, Jack Ryan is probably much better served on the small screen anyway, as Paramount are surely running out of reboots by now.

Contributor

I don't do social media, so like or follow me in person but please maintain a safe distance or the authorities will be notified. Don't snap me though, I'll probably break. I was once labelled a misogynist on this very site in a twenty paragraph-long rant for daring to speak ill of the Twilight franchise. I stand by what I said, it's crap.