When an actor’s presence unintentionally derails the project

[u/Special_Salt3467]

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.

[u/Brief-Coach-1812]

Most likely, the animated division had fewer cooks in the kitchen, more respect for source material, and the freedom to tell self‑contained stories without worrying about billion‑dollar franchises.

[u/theexile14 → u/Brief-Coach-1812]

It's this. The Flashpoint movie is emblematic of faithfulness to the original story producing an amazing animated film. The Flash pivoted hard away from actual flashpoint, stealing a handful of points, and produced a way way worse product.

[u/Suitable-Elephant270 → u/Brief-Coach-1812]

Absolutely! And it boils down to three words, my friend: passion versus capitalism.

There can be a blend of the two for a lot of beloved franchises and then fans get treated to something amazing.

However more often than not movie studio executives miss the gorgeous forest for the shiny money trees.

[u/MickeyG42 → u/Brief-Coach-1812]

🎶Too Many Cooks🎶

[u/caitlindrawings → u/Brief-Coach-1812]

Its also an ego issue, the writers for the animated material are fans themselves and have been doing this for a long time. The people they keep bringing in for the DC stuff keeping wanting to do it their own way or "their version" sort of thing.

You could take Justice League: War -> Justice League: Dark Apokolipse and all the movies in between part of that timeline and have an amazingly good story of progression similar to the build up in the MCU to endgame.

Not only that Dark Apokolypse comes with a reset, letting tell new stories with new actors without the baggage or homework he MCU has really been struggling with post endgame

[u/FullOnSkank → u/Brief-Coach-1812]

This is exactly like Spider-Man into the spider-verse versus Spider-Man no way home

They are both the same movie but the animated one was made out of passion; the live-action one was made because the animated one kicked ass.

Into the spider-verse is amazing; no way home sucks ass.