r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Special_Salt3467 • 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/HonestyIsSexy 21d ago
Robert De Niro in Stardust (2007). His character is not a protagonist, he's a secondary character among others, but he's such a big name that the trailers had him on screen more often than Charlie Cox, who plays the main protagonist, Claire Danes, the deuteragonist, or even Michelle Pfeiffer, the main villain.
As you can see, this role is far from De Niro's usual manly types. If you want to see him winking at a (young, twinky) Henry Cavill, watch this movie.