10 Upcoming Movie Roles That Are Completely Miscast

8. Ted Bundy (Zac Efron) - Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile

Zac Efron Ted Bundy
Focus Features/State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, via Wikimedia Commons

Ted Bundy - a notorious serial killer, rapist, kidnapper, thief and necrophile - is set to be played by heartthrob Zac Efron. Just let that sink in for a second.

Bundy attacked and murdered dozens of young women and girls during the 1970s. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil And Vile will be told from the perspective of Bundy's girlfriend, Elizabeth Kloepfer, who was the one that ultimately turned him in to the police.

But when has Zac Efron displayed the range he'd need to convincingly play a damaged, psychotic, deeply disturbed killer who found pleasure in causing other people pain?

He's done darker stuff before - Parkland, in which he over-acted, and The Paperboy, in which he was serviceable - but he's never shown anything like the skillset he'll need to play Bundy.

Bundy was reportedly quite charming so Efron should be fine with that, but that's just one facet of a complex character. No matter how much makeup he's caked in or how authentic his costume is, he'll just feel like a House Of Mouse graduate playing dress-up, and that will be a very hard stigma for him to shake.

Contributor
Contributor

Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!