8 Famous Actors Forced Into Roles They Never Wanted

2. Natalie Portman - Thor: The Dark World

Jane Foster Thor The Dark World
Marvel Studios

Natalie Portman's Jane Foster has vanished from the MCU in recent years, and a behind-the-scenes conflict on 2013's Thor: The Dark World is probably to blame.

Shortly after the release of Thor in 2011, Portman was considering quitting acting altogether in order to spend more time with her then-baby boy. However, when Marvel hired Patty Jenkins to helm The Dark World - a director Portman was a huge fan of - the actress was said to have gained a renewed interest in appearing in the sequel.

But that didn't last very long. According to several sources, Marvel fired Jenkins without warning, and, crucially, neglected to tell Portman, who only found out when the news started to make headlines.

The actress was obviously displeased with this whole turn of events, but because of a contract stipulation, she was forced to star in the Jenkins-less Thor sequel anyway. The director would go on to make the smash-hit Wonder Woman for Marvel rivals DC, and you can't help but imagine that they're kicking themselves for letting her go.

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!