7 Movies that had to change cast mid production

Recasting in movies is not the case when it comes to Hollywood movies. While a cast is hired in hopes of completing the film and pulling off the role, sometimes it doesn’t go as planned. Whether due to some health-related reasons or creative differences, sometimes an actor might get replaced mid-way through the film.

Many movies and actors are remembered for the roles they played, and later become synonymous with them, as fans can’t imagine someone else playing the role. However, this is not always the case, as there are movies where actors have been replaced mid-production, and still, the movies went on to become superhits. In some, they still had screen presence, while in others, their roles were completely scrapped.

Here’s a list of 7 such movies that had to change the cast midway through the production due to several reasons.

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7 Movies that had to change cast mid-production

7) The Lord of the Rings

Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of the epic fantasy movies and also a global pop culture phenomenon. The trilogy narrates the story of how the fellowship went on a dangerous quest, destroyed the One Ring, and defeated Sauron.

Just like the movies, the cast of the trilogy pulled off their roles impeccably, bringing the fictional Middle-earth alive on our screens. However, a big change was made when the movie went into production. One of the most important characters of the films, Aragorn, the Ranger of the North and the heir of Isildur, was supposed to be played by Stuart Townsend. But he was deemed too young for the role by the studio, and Jackson replaced him after filming had already begun, and we got Viggo Mortensen, playing the King of Gondor and Arnor.

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6) Panic Room

The 2002 psychological thriller came from the renowned director David Fincher, who is known for movies of this genre. Panic Room follows a mother and a daughter who lock themselves up in the panic room of their new Upper West Side home. It stars Jodie Foster as Meg and Kristen Stewart as her daughter, Sarah.

However, that was not the initial cast when the filming of the movie began. Initially, Nicole Kidman was hired to play Meg, but due to a knee injury, she had to leave the film mid-way through the production, and Foster was cast. To make the role more suitable for Foster, many changes to the script were also made, and one of the significant changes that was made was Meg’s personality. Earlier, it was written as the opposite of her daughter, but for Foster, they rewrote her to be similar to Sarah, her daughter.

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5) Her

The acclaimed sci-fi film Her went through major changes during post-production. They recast an important character after they wrapped filming. When the film went to post-production, Spike Jonze, writer, co-producer, and director of the film, felt that Samantha Morton’s portrayal of the AI Samantha was different from what they had envisioned for the film. In an email to Vulture, Jonze wrote:

"It was only in post-production, when we started editing, that we realized that what the character/movie needed was different from what Samantha and I had created together. So we recast, and since then Scarlett has taken over that role."

Therefore, Scarlet Johansson stepped into the role and became the voice of Samantha in the film.

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4) Harry Potter franchise

If you are a fan of Harry Potter movies and books, you might have noticed one significant change in the cast of the third film, The Prisoner of Azkaban. The role of Hogwarts Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, was recast and played by Michael Gambon. In the first two films, Richard Harris played the character and became one of the most accurately played characters, resembling how he was written in the books.

Unfortunately, Harris passed away in 2002 before the premiere of The Chamber of Secrets. Michael Gambon was then recast in the role, who gave the character his own charm, making it his own character and different from Harris’s earlier portrayal.

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3) Aliens

After the huge success of Alien, James Cameron brought the sequel of the sci-fi juggernaut starring Sigourney Weaver as Ripley. In this film, Weaver’s Ellen Ripley goes back to the site where she encountered the alien creature in the first film to help investigate when all contacts are lost with a human colony on the same site.

The making of the movie was a difficult task due to various reasons, including issues with 20th Century Fox and multiple management changes. Another important change was the recasting of one of the cast members in the middle of filming. American actor James Remar was initially cast as Dwayne Hicks but left midway into the production. He later revealed that he was actually fired due to his issues related to drugs. As per IndieWire, Ramer talked about this in the Sidebar. He said:

"I had a terrible drug problem, but I got through it. I had a great career and personal life, and messed it up with a terrible drug habit… I was initially cast as Corporal Hicks, and I was fired after a couple weeks of filming because I got busted for possession of drugs, and Michael Biehn replaced me."

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2) Back to the Future

Imagine Back to the Future without Michael J. Fox’s adventurous and rock music-loving Marty McFly. Well, that’s how it was going to be as Fox was cast later as Marty, even though he was the first choice for the role of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. However, the role initially went to Eric Stoltz.

However, due to scheduling issues, editing and filming were happening simultaneously, which allowed director Robert Zemeckis to review the scenes and notice how wrong they were to hire Stoltz. As per Esquire, Fox was hired before Stoltz was told about not being a part of the film anymore so that there was no further delay. Fox's portrayal of Marty made the Back to the Future movies more entertaining and compelling.

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1) Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

The 2009 fantasy film marked Heath Ledger's last performance on screen. He played the character of Tony Shepard. As Ledger passed away during the filming of the movie, three actors, Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrel were recast in his role with a unique and brilliant twist, that didn’t break the flow of the film but added to the mystery and magic of the magic mirror or the magical portal, Imaginarium.

As Ledger’s Tony Shepard joined Doctor Parnassus’s traveling troupe as a barker and lured women into the imaginarium, where they encounter different versions of Tony, played by Depp, Law, and Farrell, depending on their imaginations. Therefore, making the recasting a part of the movie without hampering Ledger’s character at all.

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