Movie Franchises That Ruined Iconic Characters:
Hollywood has a number of movies that have developed quite the fan following over the years and multiple movie franchises have become cult classics in their own right. Each movie franchise has its own set of popular, fan favorite characters that are the poster children of their movie series. Many would claim that it was these characters that made these movies huge. But with time, every good thing comes to an end. An actor might be born for a certain role but after the wrinkles of time get to you, you will be replaced. That is what happened with the characters on this list and to be frank, the only question we have for selecting the actors who succeeded the actors to play these iconic roles in their respective movies is – What were the casting directors smoking? Presenting – 10 Blockbuster movie franchises that ruined Iconic characters twice in a row!!
10. Batman – Val Kilmer and George Clooney
The Dark Knight is DC Comics’ most valuable property. He is the glue that keeps the DC Universe alive and kicking. To play Batman on the big screens is a dream-come-true for any actor. It is an even bigger moment for the fans of the Caped Crusader, who get to see different portrayals of their favorite superhero by different actors. It is safe to say that DC really screwed up in the 1990s when they released two consecutive Batman movies with only a two-year gap in between both becoming major flops at the box office. While the critics and the viewers keep blaming the shoddy scriptwriting and the tacky storyline, let us not the very character on which the movie was made. Batman was played by two different actors – Val Kilmer in Batman Forever and George Clooney in Batman & Robin. Both sucked!!!
9. John Connor – Christian Bale and Jason Clarke
There are literally three characters that hold the Terminator franchise together and they feature in almost all Terminator movie in one way or another – John Connor, Sarah Connor, and the eponymous T-800 played by Arnold Schwarzenegger (more on him on a bit). John Connor is supposed to be the savior of the human race after the machines took over the globe. Christian Bale’s portrayal of the character lacked soul and made John Connor sound like a guy with a case of permanent diarrhea. Christian Bale at least had the popularity factor that helped his criminally soulless performance slide. Jason Clarke on the other hand, was so bad in his role as John Connor that we are not even going to talk about him much here.
8. Doctor Doom – Julian McMahon and Toby Kebbell
As the most underrated supervillain in Marvel Comics history, Doctor Doom has had the unique bad luck of being featured in not just one but three different Fantastic Four movies, each of which was a Box Office Bomb. And if that was not enough, the actors who played his role were not that good either. James McMahon was a popular TV star before he joined the Fantastic Four movie. It was only after the movie was released that we realized how bad a Doctor Doom portrayal he did. Toby Kebbell was originally supposed to play a hacker with his handle name “Doom” in the new Fantastic Four reboot. The online backlash led to reshoots where he had to play another iteration of the character, which also fell short and was terribly comic book inaccurate.
7. James Bond – Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan
He is smart. He is sexy. He is suave. He is stylish. He is 007, Her Majesty’s greatest weapon against evil. He is James Bond. He is what every child dreams to become and every man wishes he was. James Bond has everything an average going guy could never wish to have. A guy who is so looked up to also needs to have that oomph factor that sets him apart from the rest. There have been a ton of James Bond movies and most of them have been wildly successful. Yet we are forced to mention Timothy Dalton’s mechanical portrayal of James Bond in License to Kill. The disastrous casting choice did not end there. Pierce Brosnan played James Bond twice in Diamonds Are Forever and Tomorrow Never Dies. In both of them, all we wanted to do when we saw Brosnan as Bond was puke.
6. Cyclops – James Marsden and Tye Sheridan
Why did Fox half to go and transform one of the X-Men’s most brilliant characters into a total sissy? All Cyclops has ever done in the X-Men movies was get into trouble, get out of trouble only with the help of his friends and/or act like a sidekick to the other heroes. Remember Scott Summers is one of the greatest tacticians and leaders of Earth. He has even taken down Captain America, the world’s smartest battle tactician using just his mind. And the laser beams coming out of his eyes are no joke either. James Marsden played Cyclops in the X-Men trilogy. We all know how forgettable his performance was. Tye Sheridan only added insult to injury in the new X-Men movies.
5. Laurie Strode – Jamie Lee Curtis and Scout Taylor-Compton
Make no mistake – Jamie Lee Curtis will always be the face of the Halloween franchise. Her and Michael Myers’ mask is the first thing that comes to mind whenever we are reminded of this blockbuster horror-slasher movie series. That still does not excuse the Curtis’ character Laurie Strode was turned into a joke. She was a total let-down in Halloween: Resurrection, where her own hesitation to kill Myers, that was revealed to be her own brother, a twist that we will never un-remember. The real shock came in 2002 when the same movie was rebooted and Scout Taylor Compton played Laurie Strode. The storyline was very confusing from the beginning but Compton’s unmoving performance and strode coupled with that dastardly conclusion was enough for the fans to spit on the screens for good.
4. Boba Fett – Jeremy Bulloch and Daniel Logan
Boba Fett may be a villain but that has not stopped him from becoming one of the most popular characters in the Star Wars Universe. Who would not like a guy who is like an alien terminator! Boba Fett is a guy with pure skill and the Force has nothing to do with him. That is what makes him so unique since he is still one of the most feared mercenaries in the galaxy. Jeremy Bulloch earned quite a name for himself as Boba Fett but his sad death in return of the Jedi turned him into an object of hatred for the Star Wars fans. Then came Daniel Logan – the child actor played a young Boba Fett who witnessed his own father being killed by Jedi Master Mace Windu in Attack of the Clones. This humanization of Boba Fett, who the fans saw having a mysterious aura to him, was unanimously loathed!
3. Frank Castle – Dolph Lundgren and Ray Stevenson
Let us clear the air here. Dolph Lundgren is a terrible actor. Period. He is only good in movies where he has to play giant henchman roles. Somehow he has still managed to make a name for himself in Hollywood and we respect that. His role as Frank Castle in the 1989 Punisher movie is still the laughing stock of the town. The only guy who played the character worse than Lundgren was Ray Stevenson in Punisher: War Zone, the 2008 reboot of the franchise that earned more infamy than fame.
2. Jean Grey – Famke Janssen and Sophie Turner
Painting your hair red and having an attractive face does not mean you can play the Phoenix, that much the x-Men movies have proved to us beyond doubt in X-Men: The Last Stand, where Famke Janssen absolutely blew it as Jean Grey, and Sophie Turner in X-Men: Dark Phoenix – where the only thing worse than the detestable storyline was Sophie Turner’s portrayal of the titular character. If Famke’s Jean Grey was unconvincing, then Turner’s Jean Grey was a Class 5 Disaster.
1. The Terminator – Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arnold Schwarzenegger
To be honest, there is no one who can play the eponymous killing machine from the future than the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is as if he was brought to this Earth by a higher power himself to play this role. The recent storylines though haven’t been kind to him and as a result, his legacy as the Terminator is tainted. Case in point – Arnold’s split-second appearance as his younger self in CGI form as the Terminator in Terminator: Salvation and his latter appearance as the older grandpa Terminator in Terminator: Genisys.
