10 Sequels That Stupidly Changed The Main Character

The Original: In Charlton Heston's Taylor, Planet Of The Apes has one of the best, most fitting protagonists in all of sci-fi. An overwhelming cynic who spends the entire movie waxing lyrical about how all of humanity's probably dead and that it'll likely have been at our own hand, he's in for a rude awakening when he strolls along a beach and discovers... exactly that has happened.

The Sequel: Charlton Heston didn't really want to do any more Apes films, so agreed to come back on two conditions; one, it be the last one and, two, he'd only be in part of the movie, with a new actor taking his place as the lead.

Enter James Franciscus as Brent, another astronaut so randomly inserted into the film that it feels like a last-minute rewrite from Taylor; they look so alike apes mistake them for each other. Beneath The Planet Of The Apes isn't a bad movie (and still ranks as the best non-original Apes flick), but the faff this switcheroo introduces is rather unorganic and gets in the way of a fascinating monkey vs mutant (yes, seriously) plot.

At least Heston got to blow up the world at the end. Unfortunately for him, Fox found a way (via time travel) to go the prequel route and three more movies were made (and eventually a remake, in which he had a damned, dirty cameo).