10 Times Recasting Iconic Characters Actually Worked

10. Dumbledore

The Original: Richard Harris The Recast: Michael Gambon When Harry Potter kicked off the most likely recast was going to be with the young leads. Child actors tend to grow faster than annual installments can be made, which had led Warner Bros. to originally suggest making J.K. Rowling's books into an animated franchise (she wasn't too hot on the idea). There have been various recasts throughout the gigantic film series - Lavender Brown got a new actress (and race) when she became a love interest and Crabbe was pushed out of events after his actor got sent to prison - but by far the most profile has to be Albus Dumbledore. Richard Harris has played the kindly-yet-powerful headmaster of Hogwarts in the original two films, but when he died in 2002 the producers had no option but to get someone else in. The replacement was Michael Gambon, who ended up giving us a more Gandalf-esque mage, which given the increasing seriousness of the series wasn't a bad thing. At first, however, it appeared the film-makers had made a big mistake. Some of his scenes in Prisoner Of Azkaban and Goblet Of Fire are decidedly un-Dumbledore; he really shouldn't have attacked Harry for his name coming out of the Goblet. Thankfully, as things got more epic, he settled down a little.