6. Heath Ledger Brokeback Mountain
This entry's a bit different, but please let me explain why while Brokeback Mountain isn't ostensibly a bad film (it's actually really good) its subject matter was so out there for some that it accentuated backlash around the actor's casting as The Joker. So with that in mind, let's get started. Pretty much the Citizen Kane of misplaced fanboy fury, Heath Ledger's casting as The Joker whipped up a storm like few others before or since. Of course, at the point of his casting Ledger was most famous for what will go down in the annals of history as 'that gay cowboy film,' Brokeback Mountain. If you saw it (and I'm willing to guess that most of the outrage came from people who hadn't), you'll know that Ledger's portrayal of Ennis Del Mar was magnificent, combining a heterosexual male archetype (the cowboy with emotional conflict and no small amount of Oscar-worthy brooding to create an unforgettable concoction of award-bait. Being honest, could you really see him becoming a comic book villain after this? I'm willing to bet you couldn't. So naturally, when people learnt he was stepping into the Joker's purple suit, they were all sorts of furious. After all, we couldn't have a gay cowboy playing the clown prince of crime! The world might fall off its axis! Hilariously misplaced misgivings aside, it was something of an insane jump to make, and even the right-minded approached the news with trepidation. After all, jumping from Ang Lee at his most esoteric to Christopher Nolan at his most blockbuster-y would prove a jump for anyone. Yet later down the line, we found out from set reports that Ledger wasn't just good in the part he was killing it. Quite frankly, it made a lot of fanboys look foolish, providing great fuel for the argument that prior performances don't necessarily dictate the future.