Some of your favorite movies almost looked a lot different.

6 iconic movie roles recast at the last minute

Some of your favorite movies almost looked a lot different.

By Brianna Zigler

June 8, 2026 2:04 p.m. ET

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Samantha Morton; Andrew Garfield; Charlie Hunnam. Credit:

Shane Anthony Sinclair/BAFTA/Getty; Mike Marsland/WireImage; Neilson Barnard/Getty

How a movie looks when it begins production is often a far cry from what you end up seeing onscreen.

Scripts change, characters change, even directors can be swapped out. Sometimes, cast shakeups occur during pre-production (or even filming), whether that's due to an actor getting fired or choosing to leave of their own volition. This can be for any number of reasons: scheduling conflicts, injuries, or just a lack of chemistry on set.

Several acclaimed and beloved films were initially envisioned with an entirely different actor in the lead role. Can you imagine anyone besides Hugh Jackman playing Wolverine in the *X-Men* films? Once upon a time, someone did. Would *The Lord of the Rings* trilogy have been so successful with a younger, less world-weary Aragorn? We'll never know, of course, but it's fun to consider what could have been.

Below, we dig into seven actors who nearly played some of the more memorable movie roles in recent memory — and who ended up replacing them.

Stuart Townsend, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Stuart Townsend in Monaco on June 12, 2013; Viggo Mortensen in Rome on Oct. 18, 2024.

Toni Anne Barson/FilmMagic; Massimo Insabato/Getty

Sometimes, directors make mistakes — like casting the wrong actor for a massive blockbuster trilogy they plan to shoot back-to-back.

Such was the case with Peter Jackson, who realized shortly before filming began on *The Lord of the Rings* trilogy that Stuart Townsend was not the right fit for the role. Townsend, an Irish actor known at the time for films such as *Resurrection Man* (1998) and *Wonderland* (1999), was originally cast as Aragorn.

As Townsend told ** in 2005, he was given the boot the day before filming began.

"Two weeks ago I finally read an article where the filmmakers said, 'We were totally wrong about Stuart and we accept that it was our fault,' which was so nice because I did get shafted up the a--," he said. "I was there rehearsing and training for two months, then was fired the day before filming began."

He continued, "[Jackson] wanted me and then apparently thought better of it because he really wanted someone 20 years older than me and completely different."

Speaking about the incident for *The Irish Times* in 2020, Mortensen admitted that it was "awkward."

"When I was told that I would be replacing someone I felt awkward about it,” he reflected. “I wondered if I would meet the actor but he was gone when I got there. I was just thrown into it and had to do the best I could. That’s all I know. And I did run across Stuart after we finished — I think it was in Los Angeles — and said hi. I hear he’s a nice guy and I am sorry that happened.”

Dougray Scott, X-Men

Dougray Scott in London on Nov. 6, 2025; Hugh Jackman in New York City on June 3, 2026.

Matt Keeble/Dave Benett/Getty; Cindy Ord/Getty

Hugh Jackman has played Wolverine 10 times (not counting cameos) throughout his career, most recently in 2024's smash hit *Deadpool & Wolverine*. It's hard to imagine anyone else rocking those sideburns at this point, let alone acclaimed Scottish actor Dougray Scott, who was initially cast as the superhero.

Scott was filming *Mission: Impossible 2* at the time, and his commitments to that eventually pulled him away from *X-Men*. In 2020, Scott revealed to *The Telegraph* that *Mission: Impossible* star Tom Cruise "didn't let me do it."

He continued, “We were doing *Mission: Impossible* and he was like, ‘you’ve got to stay and finish the film,' and I said I will, but I'll go and do that as well. For whatever reason he said I couldn’t. He was a very powerful guy. Other people were doing everything to make it work.”

Hugh Jackman was given the part three weeks before filming — after director Bryan Singer’s first choice, Russell Crowe, turned down the part.

Samantha Morton, Her

Samantha Morton in London on Feb. 18, 2024; Scarlett Johansson in Newport Beach, Calif., on Oct. 19, 2025.

Shane Anthony Sinclair/BAFTA/Getty; Jerod Harris/Getty

Scarlett Johansson isn't onscreen in Spike Jonze's *Her, *but her voice is crucial as Samantha, the AI girlfriend of Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix).

The character was originally performed by actress Samantha Morton, who was only recast during post-production. Morton recorded the entire performance as Samantha and was on set throughout filming, working closely with Jonze and Phoenix. (She was ultimately credited as an associate producer.)

Jonze discussed the decision in a *Her* post-screening Q&A during the 2013 AFI Fest. "Samantha was really involved in giving Joaquin [Phoenix] a lot…to work from," he explained. "And then when we got into editing, we realized that what Samantha and I had done together wasn’t working for what the character needed, and so we ended up having to recast at that point in time.”

She was replaced by Johansson, whose vocal performance received numerous accolades. Morton doesn't hold a grudge about what went down, but she was still somewhat hurt, as she admitted to *Vanity Fair* in 2019.

“It feels like I created a painting and then put it in the attic, and nobody’s seen it—but it’s fine because I know it’s there,” she said.

Still, she nevertheless felt divorced from the end product — and the people who made it. “I would have been happy to go with Scarlett and everybody else and celebrate the film at the premiere, because we all made it,” she said. “I was like, Oh, I thought I was part of this family.”

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Charlie Hunnam, Fifty Shades of Grey

Charlie Hunnam at the 32nd Annual Actor Awards on March 1, 2026; Jamie Dornan in Paris on Jan. 21, 2026.

Neilson Barnard/Getty; Aurore Marechal/Getty

*Sons of Anarchy* star Charlie Hunnam originally accepted the role of the domineering Christian Grey in the hotly anticipated *Fifty Shades of Grey *adaptation*. *Unfortunately, the actor realized too late that his commitments to both the final season of *Sons* and Guillermo del Toro's *Crimson Peak* conflicted with *Fifty Shades*' shooting schedule.

Northern Irish actor* *Jamie Dornan ended up stepping in just a month before cameras were set to roll.

Speaking with *Variety* in 2015, Hunnam admitted that dropping out of *Fifty Shades *was “the worst professional experience of my life” and “heartbreaking.”

“I’d given Guillermo my word, over a year before, that I was going to do this film,” Hunnam explained. “People were saying, ‘Are you crazy? Guillermo still has got four months to recast, it’s the fourth lead, you can go and do this [instead].’ I said, ‘I can’t. He’s my friend, I’ve done a film with him, I gave him my word.'”

Last year, Hunnam revealed that *Fifty Shades* star Dakota Johnson razzed him for his decision. “She gave me a bit of a hard time about it in a very fun way," he said.

James Remar, Aliens

James Remar at the 53rd Annual Saturn Awards on March 8, 2026, in Universal City, Calif.; Michael Biehn at the 51st Annual Saturn Awards in Burbank, Calif., on Feb. 4, 2024.

Michael Tullberg/Getty; Gregg DeGuire/Variety via Getty

In *Aliens**,* Michael Biehn plays Dwayne Hicks, Ripley's closest ally in the fight against the Xenomorphs.

Hicks is a crucial supporting character in an iconic film, but he was nearly played by the far more gruff and rugged James Remar. Director James Cameron had to make the significant swap only a couple of weeks into filming, when Remar was arrested on drug possession charges.

"I got into hash and there was some local heroin I decided to try... I guess word got out because of the people I was associating with," Remar admitted in the *Aliens* episode of Netflix's *The Movies that Made Us.* "They went into my hotel room and found my drugs... It wasn't a time where you got a friendly slap on the wrist and sent to rehab. They just got rid of you."

On a 2024 episode of *Just Foolin Around with Michael Biehn*, Biehn's *Aliens* costar Ricco Ross admitted he was initially wary when the role was swapped but that it ended up being a "great lesson" for him on understanding that there can be multiple interpretations to a role.

"Michael comes on and flips it, and plays it a completely different way, and he captures it," he said. "And I remember thinking, 'Okay, okay. There's more than one way to skin a cat."

Andrew Garfield, Frankenstein

Andrew Garfield in London on March 26, 2026; Jacob Elordi at the 98th Annual Academy Awards on March 15, 2026.

Jeff Spicer/Getty; ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty

The role that would clinch Jacob Elordi his first Academy Award nomination was nearly played by Andrew Garfield.

The *Amazing Spider-Man* actor was originally cast as the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s *Frankenstein. *However, pre-production was temporarily halted during the writer’s and actor’s strikes in 2023.

When the strikes were over and production could resume, Garfield had a scheduling conflict and had to drop out. With just weeks before filming was set to begin, del Toro cast Elordi. The prosthetic and makeup team, meanwhile, had to redesign the entire look of the creature for the actor, who has a whole seven inches on Garfield.

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Del Toro ended up locking onto the *Euphoria* actor because of his performance in *Saltburn,* as he explained to *Variety*.

“I saw *Saltburn* and I loved his innocence and openness,” del Toro said, adding that “Jacob’s eyes are so full of humanity.”

The swap turned out to be a game-changer for the 28-year-old Australian actor, who received widespread acclaim for his performance.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Movies”