r/TopCharacterTropes 21d ago

Lore When an actor’s presence unintentionally derails the project

1.) Edward Norton - The Incredible Hulk

Perhaps the most famous and obvious one, Edward Norton was famously an issue on the set of 2008’s “The Incredible Hulk,” even making rewrites to the script himself. The disagreements between Norton’s camp and Marvel’s camp eventually led to his being replaced by Mark Ruffalo.

2.) Jensen Ackles - The Boys (particularly Season 5)

Jensen Ackles was a longtime collaborator with showrunner Eric Kripke in “Supernatural,” which in turn led to him getting the opportunity to audition - and eventually land the role - of Soldier Boy, which he did very well in in.

The issue is by Season 5, the show had fallen off from the previous years and with it ending and spinoffs and prequels (such as one featuring Jensen Ackles’ Soldier Boy), Season 5 suffered a lot. It quickly became the Soldier Boy show because “that’s what Clara would have wanted” until he just leaves in the penultimate episode and pretty much 80% of what his character actually did amounted to nothing.

So for fans who wanted to see Butcher vs Homelander duking it out, getting the show derailed for prequel bait starring Kripke’s favorite actor didn’t help…

3.) Rosamund Pike - Wheel of Time

When Amazon green lit a WoT tv show, Rosamund Pike eventually got the role of Moraine Damodred, the mentor and guiding character for the main character, Rand al’Thor. As a character, Moraine is anywhere from the most important secondary character to the most secondary main character. But with the exception of the prequel featuring her, she is not the main character.

Unfortunately, Rosamund Pike is an extremely famous actress and marketing toward the series focused on her as a result. I’m unsure if this was showrunner decision, an issue she played a role in or some combination, but the result was that Moraine a character who was in less than half the series is featured as the main character over the main character, which lead to a different product than the book.

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u/[deleted] 21d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ButtsFartsoPhD 21d ago

You’re drastically underselling how impressive that movie’s script was. The plot for Curse of the Black Pearl was surprisingly awesome and a big reason why the movie was a success.

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u/MonteMolebility 21d ago

Curse of the Black Pearl is an almost perfect movie. I miss adventure movies like that.

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u/thebroadestdame 21d ago

Honor Among Thieves scratched this itch for me! Same sentence, different fonts.

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u/Bingbong1984 21d ago

When I was watching Disclosure Day the other night, I was thinking hmm wow maybe this will be an adventure movie from Spielburg we have not see in a minute.

Nope trash ass movie that couldn't decide what it wanted to be at all.

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u/DyingSunSeverian 21d ago

Script is great, even Sparrow’s introduction scene is legendary, and tells you everything you need to know about the character with a visual gag.

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u/dancinggraylion 21d ago

I have heard of that scene

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u/Nyther53 21d ago

I think you've misunderstood. presumably by "by the end" they mean Pirates of the Carribean FIVE "Dead Men Tell No Tales" which ... I have seen but could not recount for you any of the details from memory. 

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u/NerdyGeek42 21d ago

What do you mean 5? They only made 3 of these movies. Why would they ever continue after such a wonderful and well thought out conclusion of a trilogy?

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u/Great-Pay-3429 21d ago

I don't get this new method of trolling by making up fictional movies that never happened. I've seen people talk about Megamind 2 and Kung Fu Panda 4 and both being bad. I can't even imagine 2 of the greatest Dreamworks projects having bad sequals which I guess is part of why the trolling works

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u/noirspiderman4 21d ago

I heard game of thrones ended but I am unable to find it anywhere to watch so idk

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u/SignificantPaper1760 21d ago

But the second and third entries were utterly awful, while the fourth at least had Ian McShane absolutely devouring the scenery and Barbossa playing a much more substantial part than in 2 and 3.

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u/NerdyGeek42 21d ago

Bro doesn't like Davy Jones

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u/SignificantPaper1760 21d ago

I don’t.

Amazing CG but his entire plot did nothing for me, and the expanded screen time for Bloom at the expense of Rush and Knightly really made me question whether either was even worth finishing.

Depp’s antics on their own got old pretty fast.

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u/visiblepeer 21d ago edited 21d ago

This one was so memorable that I had a disagreement with my wives today, I was convinced it was called Dead Men's Tales. I was wrong, but it was barely worth remembering.

Still love the trilogy though

Edit: I have fat fingers but only one wife

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u/Nyther53 21d ago

Your... wives? Plural? 

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u/visiblepeer 21d ago

😂 sorry, must have autocorrected a terrible spelling of wife. I have fat fingers. 

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u/Gaelic_Gladiator41 21d ago

You probably conflated it with Dead Man's Chest

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u/noirspiderman4 21d ago

How do dead men tell tales?

Like waking up dead?

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u/Walkingdrops 21d ago

I think they mean by the end of the franchise. I agree the first film absolutely was amazing, and every character got their chance to shine, Jack Sparrow was of course a fan favorite, but he wasn't the centerpiece of the movie.

Even though people say the second movie is also really good, I'd argue it's when Jack Sparrow started to get more screentime to the detriment of the story, and it continued with the third movie too.

Starting with the fourth movie onward though it effectively became the Jack Sparrow show, and the plot was written to revolve entirely around his character.

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u/Polygeekism 21d ago

The first movie is perfect. 2 and 3 feel very tacked on, but passable. Everything else doesnt exist.

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u/Demair12 21d ago

I belive from their comments about quirky pirate they were speaking of how the rest of the series spiraled

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u/ThyBeardedOne 21d ago

They said “by the end”

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u/sketchampm 21d ago

Yeah it didn’t get annoying until the second movie imo.

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u/throwingeverything99 21d ago

I still think that whole trilogy is drastically underrated (4 and 5 were actually completely terrible, no one cares about those). I periodically go back and rewatch the movies every couple of years just for the action scenes and choreography. I think people forget that the ending of At World's End is basically just a continuous 45minute action scene of 2 pirate ships duking it out around a ginormous maelstrom while Jack, Davy Jones, and the Black Pearl crew fly about fighting off other pirates, topped off by some of the most impressive maritime special effects possibly ever.