50 Huge Movie Characters That Were Completely Miscast
47. Topher Grace As Eddie Brock - Spider-Man 3
As Sony has proven since 2018, Venom is a character that has the legs to carry a franchise by himself. Before his first solo film, he appeared only in Spider-Man 3, and even then he had to fight for his screen time with New Goblin (James Franco) and the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church).
It may be a nice thought that Venom would have had more time to shine in the film, but this version of the character has absolutely nothing on Sony's own, and it starts with the actors. Tom Hardy was as great a casting for Eddie Brock as Topher Grace was bad.
This is the first of a few attempts to break typecast on this list, and unfortunately it missed the mark by a wide margin. Grace was easily most well known for playing Eric Forman in That 70's Show, and there was absolutely nothing from his performance there that suggested he could take on this role.
As Eddie, his arrogance and anger just weren't convincing, and when he did have flashes of himself as Venom, his boyish good looks did not serve him well. There was no edge to him as either part of the character, something that has been done far better since by Tom Hardy.