11 Movie Casting Choices The Public Couldn't Handle

You can have a great script, a wonderful director, and an ultra-talented crew, but there's no mistaking the paramount importance of getting a movie's casting right.

Pick the right actor to play a part and you've got instant cinematic dynamite, but screw it up and an ill-fitting actor can single-handedly sink the entire production.

As much as Hollywood loves to play things safe, bold casting choices are certainly a way to get people's attention - both for better and for worse.

Who among us can forget the negativity surrounding Heath Ledger's casting as The Joker in The Dark Knight, only for him to win an Academy Award for his performance?

Audiences are historically pretty poor at being open-minded about casting, and so it's little surprise that these left-field picks left many viewers vocally infuriated.

While in some cases the frustration was at least understandable - if not calling out some of Hollywood's more cynical casting practises - in others it simply allowed audiences to reveal their own closed-mindedness to the world.

But regardless of how it turned out, these casting choices immediately ignited the ire of audiences worldwide...

Because racists can always be counted on to kick up a fuss, there was a significant outcry online when it was announced that the brilliant Michael B. Jordan would be playing Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch in Josh Trank's 2015 Fantastic Four reboot.

Though some cried foul that Storm, a traditionally white character in the comics, wouldn't look "source-accurate" as played by a black man, other impossibly angry comic book fans opined that Jordan's casting stank of the ever-fearful "political correctness gone mad."

This was while completely ignoring that Storm's race is of little relevance in the comics, and better still, that Jordan was a terrific choice for the part.

The backlash was significant enough that writer-director Trank reportedly slept with a gun on his nightstand during production.

Furthermore, Trank also wanted to cast a black actress to play Sue Storm, but was overruled by Fox, resulting in Kate Mara - who Trank ultimately clashed with throughout production - being cast.

Though the movie turned out pretty terrible all-around, Jordan at least seemed philosophical about the silliness of the casting controversy. He said:

"You’re not supposed to go on the Internet when you’re cast as a superhero...Some people may look at my casting as political correctness or an attempt to meet a racial quota, or as part of the year of 'Black Film.' Or they could look at it as a creative choice by the director, Josh Trank, who is in an interracial relationship himself - a reflection of what a modern family looks like today."