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

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

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.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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