MCU recasts: When Your Favorite Superhero Got a New Face!
The MCU's Shifting Sands: Why Some Superheroes Got New Actors
The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is a massive, interconnected universe with incredible consistency. Yet, it’s not perfect! Over the years, some roles got recast. Why? A bunch of reasons, from contract disputes to scheduling conflicts, even creative differences and tragic real-life events! This list explores all the major recasting instances across all MCU projects, from Phase 1 onwards. It even includes those changes which only occur in specific Marvel projects like What If...?
Marvel Studios uses different strategies to solve those issues that affect production timelines and talent availabilities. This impacts their decision making in many different, unexpected ways and creates a rather large variation depending on the severity, the overall context and how long the cast member is likely going to be involved; resulting in recasts impacting various projects. That is especially obvious when it concerns major roles like War Machine and Hulk! Yet some other characters' replacement might be unexpected because some weren't quite so well known and played such small parts which made their replacement seem barely consequential.
MCU Recasting Moments: A Detailed Look
12. War Machine (James Rhodes): From Howard to Cheadle
The very first MCU recast? Early! Terrence Howard was originally Rhodey in Iron Man; and he had the top salary on set. But he disappeared. Don Cheadle took over starting with Iron Man 2; earning the opportunity to be War Machine; his role expanded considerably across that whole era! The reasons? Supposedly a pay dispute; but there’s never been any confirmation for this rumor and leaves that very critical point surrounded by some unresolvable questions!
11. The Hulk (Bruce Banner): From Norton to Ruffalo
Edward Norton's Hulk (in The Incredible Hulk) was well-received, unlike that earlier, equally famous 2003 iteration of Hulk! It was really great acting, showcasing great character work, but some production issues occurred behind the scenes, ultimately resulting in Mark Ruffalo taking the role starting from The Avengers (2012).
The reason for change was publicized—it is suggested as some kind of difference concerning creative vision or working process for the actor which is noted within the official statement: they simply desired “an actor who embodies the creativity and collaborative spirit” – that's an interesting and highly publicized announcement, demonstrating the significant impact that changes have when those major characters might possibly be replaced.
10. Fandral (Warriors Three): A Tale of Two Actors (and a Third!)
This is complicated. Originally, Zachary Levi was cast in Thor as Fandral; that role ended because of other work which was ultimately his own other show. He ended up taking his role back later in Thor: The Dark World! Scheduling problems made it impossible for Levi to reappear as he is one of the actors unable to do other filming, resulting in this recast happening again!
That left this small role easily forgotten because after Thor: Ragnarok the Warriors Three become casualties! Another creative choice leading to that minor detail of having many roles for an actor change simply because those plots become irrelevant later, making the actor substitution seemingly less critical or impacting.
9. Howard Stark: Three Actors and Three Eras
This was somewhat confusing because it featured 3 actors: First Gerard Sanders (a completely silent role); Then, John Slattery (in Iron Man 2, Captain America: Civil War, and Avengers: Endgame); Finally, the much younger Dominic Cooper in other films needing that younger Howard Stark.
The recasting mostly came about due to storytelling requirements; yet some later parts show very specific reasoning that these events made clear, showing specific instances that justify each additional recast; clearly making the whole thing less confusing.
8. Red Skull (Johann Schmidt): From Weaving to Marquand
Hugo Weaving's Red Skull was incredible, iconic even, in Captain America: The First Avenger. His return (Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame) used Ross Marquand; a famous impersonator that remarkably resembled the character! Weaving was unavailable and that’s why the role changed.
It's barely obvious! That made a very smart choice; utilizing Marquand’s incredible skill and completely utilizing extensive makeup; to effectively create a character that remained consistent with its previous iterations!
7. Thanos: From Poitier to Brolin
A little known fact; Damion Poitier was the original Thanos (a short appearance at the ending of The Avengers)! Then Josh Brolin took over; and that makes sense due to the vastly increased amount of effort, filming time and significance his appearance would make compared to other instances!
There’s no real drama! They just hadn't decided who Thanos would be when The Avengers initially launched! That completely makes sense.
6. Cassie Lang: Growing Up in the MCU
This isn’t a surprise, because Cassie Lang's aged significantly across various films! It impacted those kinds of key storytelling requirements: We've had Abby Ryder Fortson, then Emma Fuhrmann, finally, Kathryn Newton. Each cast member appeared across that timeline that highlighted her growth across the various time periods featured across Ant-Man.
5. Thaddeus Ross: From Hurt to Ford
Due to the unfortunately passing of William Hurt, Harrison Ford now plays Thaddeus Ross. We see him become Red Hulk in that Captain America: Brave New World.
4. Wiccan (Billy Maximoff): A Supernatural Recasting Twist
The most recent recast; Joe Locke replacing Julian Hillard as Billy. But the Agatha All Along show revealed his character had experienced something extreme and utterly unanticipated that happened between those earlier and more recent shows. This unexpected supernatural plot shift (Billy’s soul being transferred into the recently deceased William Kaplan’s body) makes sense regarding this substitution.
3. Reed Richards: From Krasinski to Pascal (in different timelines!)
That amazing appearance of John Krasinski's Reed Richards in the Multiverse of Madness? Different from that coming Fantastic Four film using Pedro Pascal! This is extremely obvious!
2. Johnny Storm: From Evans to Quinn
This one was unexpected, because Chris Evans' unexpected cameo (using footage of that prior Fox Fantastic Four) was an utterly fantastic surprise! The MCU’s Fantastic Four: First Steps using Joseph Quinn; shows a significant creative leap!
1. What If…?: An Entirely Different Cast!
What If...? recast so many characters, and made those many voice acting role substitutions almost impossible to account for without highlighting all of them here, using a different person. While Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Brie Larson, Tom Holland, and others' soundalikes appeared instead, this highlights the sheer scale involved. Even if the production quality of this series differed vastly from those big-budget films which make up that initial main narrative, this series continues that unique storytelling elements which would not have existed without its utilization and the use of some really skilled and veteran voice actors which create those distinct connections to original cast members! Many other projects don’t actually care that their character voicing might sound almost identical, which impacts overall enjoyment of this distinct Marvel project.
Conclusion: The MCU's Ever-Evolving Roster of Heroes
The MCU’s recasting shows its complexities and the creative processes. Sometimes it is a necessary evil (especially that What If...? series), caused through various and distinct factors, sometimes entirely unexpected, especially during those various times when production required some very hard to do changes, some far more dramatic than others (death of an actor is obviously huge!). And that's perfectly okay. These moments reflect the very fact that the MCU’s immense narrative reach, which cannot really be perfectly copied easily or duplicated entirely by similar attempts to produce content, highlighting this series and this universe’s uniquely creative approach. Recasting also shows the incredible storytelling involved in adapting the storylines across this extensive storyline from the original print source, including those parts needing some kind of overhaul depending on the changes and various reimaginings which became possible!
