10 Times Video Games RECAST Major Roles
4. Michael Keaton - Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2
If Modern Warfare 3 was the moment opinions started to move against the Call of Duty series, then Black Ops 2 was the moment Treyarch surpassed Infinity Ward as the most accomplished developer in the long running franchise. When the series was stagnating, Treyarch's title stood out as an outlier.
A lot of what made Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 work was its campaign which experimented with player choice and multiple endings for the first time. As a sequel, it featured many of the same characters, most notably Alex Mason, Frank Woods and Jason Hudson who all contend with the rise of a vicious Nicaraguan terrorist named Raul Menendez.
The CIA operative Hudson was played by Ed Harris in the original Black Ops, but was swapped out for an equally well known actor for the sequel. Michael Keaton didn't have the same gruff personality as his predecessor, but he still made sure the narrative's twists and turns landed with the right impact.
As Menendez's bloody campaign of revenge gets worse, Hudson is left on the receiving end of his brutality, ending the eighties portion of the campaign on a grisly note. Keaton really gives it his all here, delivering a solid performance that goes hand in hand with the game's darker tone.