Best Casting of Famous Characters

Element 36

New Member
Hey everyone! With so many famous franchises getting diverse and expansive adaptations across the board, I want to ask the question: What are some of your favorite castings of famous characters ever? This can be in anything, i.e. movies, TV, cartoons, etc., or of anything, i.e. comics, books, stories, etc.

For example, I'm a big fan of the casting of Chris Evans as Captain America in the MCU and of Michael Rosenbaum as Lex Luthor in Smallville.

Have fun!
 
Obligatory #1: RDJ as Tony Stark.

Obligatory #2: Christopher Reeve as Superman.

Obligatory #3: Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool

Pretty much the entire cast of the DC TV shows are excellent, with particular props to Melissa Benoist (Supergirl), Grant Gustin (Flash), and Tyler Hoechlin (Superman).

Pretty much all the MCU, including AoS and the Netflix shows.

Harrison Ford as both Han Solo and Indiana Jones, both roles that he was not intended to fill.

Thomas Jane as The Punisher was excellent.
 
Gary Bakewell as Paul McCartney in Backbeat
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J
 
I'll go out on a limb and say that I thought the casting of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern was brilliant. Unfortunately, he was saddled with a TERRIBLE movie that seriously lacked the kind of vision necessary to pull off a Green Lantern film.

It's true that the Green Lantern is a really weird superhero concept when you get down to it. Intergalactic space cops with fantastical rings that make their thoughts take form as solid green light, limited only by their imagination and willpower, and resulting in crazy-ass imagery like someone willing a green racecar into being just to catch someone, or willing a sword or machinegun or giant fist into existence to hit an enemy. That's....pretty wacky stuff.

But the thing is, Jack Kirby's version of Thor is no less wacky, what with the TOTALLY outlandish costumes, fantastical Asgardian setting, thees and thous in speech patterns, etc. And yet, even the first kinda ho-hum Thor film was pretty good, or at least was good enough that you never looked at things and thought "My god, this is just laughable!" Sadly, that was not the case with Reynolds' Green Lantern.

And the thing is, as Hal Jordan, at least the version that I'm most familiar with (starting with the Geoff Johns' era relaunch in the early 2000s), is a character almost perfectly made for him. He's cocky, brash, kind of a jerk, but also has some deep-seated pain and anguish in his life, much of which he's just trying to push past. PARTS of the film tried to show that, but the execution of the film as a whole was just lacking. And the final bad guy being a big cloud of evil was just idiotic (exactly as it was in the Fantastic Four film with Galactus being a giant world-devouring tornado).

Anyway, great casting, lousy film.


Reynolds as Deadpool was PERFECT, too. I just watched that this past weekend, and I have to say it is one of the most entertaining films I've seen in 2016. I liked it better than Civil War, actually.
 
Reynolds as Deadpool was PERFECT, too. I just watched that this past weekend, and I have to say it is one of the most entertaining films I've seen in 2016. I liked it better than Civil War, actually.

Agreed. Deadpool is now the film I show to friends who "don't like superhero films", and Reynolds is the main reason the film wins them over.

As far as other casting - I'll go with Michael Gambon as Dumbledore, especially since we have another actor's performance in the role to compare Gambon with. I was never thrilled with Richard Harris in the role as he (understandably, given his illness) seemed too frail and tentative. Gambon captured both the "twinkle" and the strength of the character as reflected in the books.

M
 
Takeru sato as kenshin Himura
Henry cavill as superman
majority of the mcu ofc with fav being chris pratt, chris evans and now also chadwick boseman.
ryan reynolds as deadpool ofc
wesley snipes as blade
the lotr cast, especially viggo mortensen and sir ian mckellen

just a few i could think of atm
 
Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan. In the 1980's he was a Frazetta painting come to life.
History may prove me wrong some day but, to date, there's nobody in the world who could have fit the part better then or since then.
 
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Edward norton - American history X.

he played that part so well it was scary on some levels. Great actor in other roles as well.


Angela Bassett - Tina turner ( what's love got to do with it)
 
I'll go out on a limb and say that I thought the casting of Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern was brilliant. Unfortunately, he was saddled with a TERRIBLE movie that seriously lacked the kind of vision necessary to pull off a Green Lantern film.

It's true that the Green Lantern is a really weird superhero concept when you get down to it. Intergalactic space cops with fantastical rings that make their thoughts take form as solid green light, limited only by their imagination and willpower, and resulting in crazy-ass imagery like someone willing a green racecar into being just to catch someone, or willing a sword or machinegun or giant fist into existence to hit an enemy. That's....pretty wacky stuff.

But the thing is, Jack Kirby's version of Thor is no less wacky, what with the TOTALLY outlandish costumes, fantastical Asgardian setting, thees and thous in speech patterns, etc. And yet, even the first kinda ho-hum Thor film was pretty good, or at least was good enough that you never looked at things and thought "My god, this is just laughable!" Sadly, that was not the case with Reynolds' Green Lantern.

And the thing is, as Hal Jordan, at least the version that I'm most familiar with (starting with the Geoff Johns' era relaunch in the early 2000s), is a character almost perfectly made for him. He's cocky, brash, kind of a jerk, but also has some deep-seated pain and anguish in his life, much of which he's just trying to push past. PARTS of the film tried to show that, but the execution of the film as a whole was just lacking. And the final bad guy being a big cloud of evil was just idiotic (exactly as it was in the Fantastic Four film with Galactus being a giant world-devouring tornado).

Anyway, great casting, lousy film.


Reynolds as Deadpool was PERFECT, too. I just watched that this past weekend, and I have to say it is one of the most entertaining films I've seen in 2016. I liked it better than Civil War, actually.

I thought Mark Strong's Sinestro was pretty much bang on as well....
 
George C. Scott as Patton.

Anthony Hopkins as John Frost (A Bridge Too Far).

Damien Lewis as Dick Winters and Frank John Hughes as Bill Guarnere (Band of Brothers).

Brad Pitt as Achilles.

Graham Chapman as King Arthur.
 
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I liked Kenneth Branagh as King Henry V in his adaption of Henry V, along with Ciaran Hinds and James Purefoy in Rome as Caesar and Antony.
 
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