10 Movie Characters Who Were Perfectly Cast (The Second Time)

5. Judge Dredd - Karl Urban (Dredd)

The Original

As absolutely everyone with an opinion on movies would tell you, the decision to allow Sylvester Stallone to take his helmet off has to go down as one of the biggest character betrayals of all time. It simply wasn't what the original comic book character would have done, no matter what the concerns about hiding such a big star under a visor.

Frustratingly, Stallone SHOULD have been perfect as Dredd. He had the action credentials and the physical presence, but the script was poor and the helmet issue was just ruinous.

Second Time's The Charm...

Fundamentally, 2012's Dredd had a lot of work to do to revive the character after he was crushed under an avalanche of bad 90s movie cliches. Luckily, Alex Garland knew both what he was doing and the source material, and cast Karl Urban as a Dredd far closer to the comic books.

He was brusque, unemotional and never took his helmet off, and even without doing so, he was able to offer an actual acting performance. He's so good, in fact, that he continued to be the fan-appointed figurehead of the many, many attempts to get a sequel off the ground.