10 Terrible Castings That Doomed Comic Book Movies
5. Dane DeHaan As Valerian - Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets
Valerian was too influential a comic to not be adapted into a Hollywood movie at some point in time, and fortunately it came out at a time when visual technology could accurately portray the insane worlds of Valerian. Shame then, that such care did not go into the portrayal of Valerian himself.
The minute Dane DeHaan was cast as the eponymous lead, I knew this movie was destined for obscurity. DeHaan is a very talented performer, but just as, say, Dev Patel always looks like he's gonna start crying no matter what mood he's in, Dane DeHaan is incapable of not looking like the most punchable douchebag in the room.
Which is fine when he's playing punchable douchebags like Harry Osborne in Amazing Spider-Man 2, but presents a problem when playing Valerian, who is meant to be a swashbuckling hero in the vain of Han Solo.
There's just this cavernous disconnect between what he's reading from the script and how he's acting in every scene. Leading to an honestly really funny scenario where you wanna slug this guy...despite the fact that he's technically given you no reason to want to do so.