10 More Insane Reasons Actors Didn't Return For Sequels

Jodie Foster's role as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs is nothing short of legendary. The entire movie was a staggering success, but it was Starling that was the beating heart of it. For several important reasons, Hannibal couldn't live up to the film that came ten years before it, and Foster's absence is arguably one of the biggest.

While Julianne Moore put in an outstanding performance as a more beaten-down and tired version of the character, it would have been impossible to match Foster's Oscar-winning performance. Ironically, it was Jodie's love and devotion to the character that prevented her from returning to play Clarice again.

Though she had commitments to another movie, Flora Plum, which ultimately never got made, the fact that Jodie Foster prefaced this as the "official" reason suggests that there was more to it than just that. She went on to tell Games Radar in 2005 that she loved Starling so much that she couldn't trample over her, seemingly suggesting that she was unhappy with the direction of the character.

This is potentially aimed at the fact that at the end of the Hannibal novel, released between the cinematic versions of The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, Starling is brainwashed and ultimately runs away with Hannibal Lecter. Though the ending was eventually changed for the film, it's easy to see why Foster wouldn't want to return to tell such a story.