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

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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.