10 Movie Roles You Didn't Know Were Recast On TV

Those characters you didn't realise had been recast for the small screen.

by Andrew Pollard
From Dusk Till Dawn Santanico Pandemonium
Miramax/Netflix

Given how successful ideas tend to be revisited time and time again, it's no surprise to see that not only do celebrated movies get sequels, prequels and remakes, but certain beloved pictures also find their tale being adapted for the small screen.

While some of these may loosely adapt a movie as a TV show, others straight-up tell the beat-for-beat story of the film on which they're based - complete with the same characters appearing.

Now, it's not unknown for actors to reprise their movie roles for TV, but often a role will be recast for the small screen, especially at times when TV wasn't as lucrative as business as it is these days. Of course, some of these new takes on familiar characters are well known by the masses, yet there are times when a character has been recast for a TV offering without mainstream audiences even being aware of that. And it's on those instances that the focus is on here.

Here, then, are ten movie characters that you likely didn't realise had been recast and played by someone different in TV land.

10. Wayne Szalinski - Honey, I Shrunk The Kids

From Dusk Till Dawn Santanico Pandemonium
Buena Vista Pictures/Disney

The success of 1989's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was remarkable. While hope was high for a fun Disney family adventure from this Joe Johnston's picture, the film shocked the world by taking a whopping $222 million at the box office - which made Honey, I Shrunk the Kids the highest-grossing live-action Disney flick in history up until that point.

Starring Rick Moranis as wacky inventor Wayne Szalinski, this '89 feature focusses on the Szalinski family as Wayne accidentally shrinks his two children - not to mention his neighbours' children - to less than an inch tall. Hilarity ensues, all is eventually made right, and the film's success was followed by sequels in 1992 (Honey, I Blew Up the Kid) and 1997 (Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves).

While Moranis would reprise the Wayne Szalinski role for both of those follow-ups, he was replaced by future Girls favourite Peter Scolari when Shrunk Ourselves was followed by a Honey, I Shrunk the Kids TV show in late '97.

Featuring a trusty 'gadget of the week' plot for the most part, this TV series was a relatively successful venture, running for three seasons and a total of 66 episodes, with it being set between the first two movies.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.