{"id":310519,"date":"2026-02-26T03:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/310519\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T03:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T03:02:10","slug":"all-11-mcu-characters-who-were-recast-by-marvel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/310519\/","title":{"rendered":"All 11 MCU Characters Who Were Recast by Marvel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Believe it or not, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been going for nearly 20 years now. For those who were around then, it\u2019s not at all hard to remember buying a ticket for Iron Man that opening weekend and realizing it was something special. But, as with any big franchise running for multiple decades, some members of the expansive cast list get swapped out somewhere down the line. Sometimes it\u2019s because they\u2019re not a team player, other times they get too busy, and then there is, sadly, the passing of some cast members. Those are the situations we\u2019re looking at today, the passing of the character from one pair of hands to another, and not always by the first pair of hands\u2019 choice. However, they had to start out in an MCU movie, so nothing like how Kelly Hu\u2019s Lady Deathstrike and various other Fox era X-Men characters who were recast for Deadpool & Wolverine (the same goes for you, Chris Evans\u2019 Human Torch).<\/p>\n

Furthermore, an actor being replaced for Marvel Zombies<\/a> didn\u2019t count. We\u2019re talking about stars who, for whatever reason, went from inhabiting the role in live action to another actor inhabiting that same role in live action. Just because a voice actor stepped in for Marvel Zombies or What If\u2026? doesn\u2019t mean that role has been well and truly recast. Lastly, if aging is a factor, that\u2019s not a recast. For instance, Abby Ryder Fortson played Cassie Lang in Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp. Her being replaced by Emma Fuhrmann for a five-years-older Cassie in Avengers: Endgame didn\u2019t count. Fuhrmann\u2019s replacement, however\u2026.<\/p>\n

11) Cassie Lang<\/p>\n

\"\"image courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures<\/p>\n

Emma Fuhrmann taking over the role of Cassie Lang in Avengers: Endgame<\/a> makes total sense. After all, she was supposed to be 16 years old, five years older than she was when Abby Ryder Fortson played her the previous year in Ant-Man and the Wasp. Even still, when Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania came along a few years later, Fuhrmann was swapped out for bigger name Kathryn Newton, who had been in Freaky, Blockers, and Pok\u00e9mon Detective Pikachu.<\/p>\n

10) Reed Richards<\/p>\n

\"\"image courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures<\/p>\n

Maybe a bit of a cheat entry, because this was more of a fan service casting than a genuine establishment of the MCU\u2019s Reed Richards. No, for years many folks online imagined The Office\u2018s John Krasinski as Ms. Fantastic and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness<\/a> obliged them, and it worked. Never mind why Patrick Stewart looks like his Earth-10005 counterpart and Hayley Atwell, Lashana Lynch, and Anson Mount look like their Earth-616 counterparts while Krasinski does not.<\/p>\n

9) Mainframe<\/p>\n

\"\"image courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures<\/p>\n

Mainframe is a little talking robot head (without a body) that finds herself one of Stakar Ogord\u2019s (Sylvester Stallone) Ravager gang. And, if her voice in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2<\/a> sounded familiar while she was speaking her few lines, that\u2019s because she was voiced by mega star Miley Cyrus. For Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, however, she was replaced by Tara Strong, who also lent her voice to Loki as Miss Minutes. The reason Cyrus was recast simply came down to her lack of availability.<\/p>\n

8) Howard Stark<\/p>\n

\"\"image courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures<\/p>\n

The first time we see Howard Stark is in a black and white image during the opening of Iron Man, where he\u2019s played by Gerard Sanders. Then, in Captain America: The First Avenger, he was aged down and played by Dominic Cooper. Thusly we\u2019re counting the character\u2019s main portrayer, John Slattery, as a replacement of Sanders, not Cooper.<\/p>\n

7) Hulk<\/p>\n

\"EdwardImage courtesy of Marvel Studios<\/p>\n

Edward Norton\u2019s Bruce Banner feels so different from Mark Ruffalo\u2019s that they barely play as the same character. But they are indeed, and the reason why Norton was relegated to just The Incredible Hulk<\/a> was because of that team player factor mentioned in the intro<\/a>. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige sought an actor who worked well as a part of a team (implying Norton wasn\u2019t that, without outright attacking him). On Norton\u2019s side of things, he stated he didn\u2019t want to play the same character for too long, preferring instead to bounce from role to role.<\/p>\n

6) Fandral<\/p>\n

\"\"image courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures<\/p>\n

When casting was underway for the original Thor<\/a> film, Zachary Levi was considered for the role of Fandral, but had to withdraw due to commitments on his show Chuck. Josh Dallas took over the role at that point, but history more or less repeated itself when it came time to make Thor: The Dark World, though this time it was Dallas backing out because of a too-packed schedule, as he was committed to Once Upon a Time. At that point Levi stepped in and played the role in both The Dark World and briefly in Thor: Ragnarok<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5) Wiccan<\/p>\n

\"\"image courtesy of disney+<\/p>\n

Technically this is an example of an age-related recasting, but it\u2019s a bit more complicated. We saw Julian Hillard play Billy Maximoff in WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but then Joe Locke took over the character in Agatha All Along<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This thing is, the Billy of Agatha is only two years older than the Billy of Multiverse, so if anything, Hillard would have made more sense. But then Agatha dropped the bomb that the \u201cnew\u201d Billy is really the corpse of a young man who died in a car crash. His body was taken over by the soul of the Billy who was unmade alongside Westview at the end of WandaVision.<\/p>\n

4) Red Skull<\/p>\n

\"\"image courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures<\/p>\n

Hugo Weaving was a note-perfect choice for Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger, but by the end of the movie it seemed as though he wouldn\u2019t ever be seen again. However, we ended up seeing him again on Vormir in Avengers: Endgame. And, while his face mostly looks the same and the voice isn\u2019t far off, it\u2019s not Weaving but rather Ross Marquand<\/a>. Weaving said no due to the relatively low financial offer and a lack of overwhelming affinity for the character and the makeup process required to play him.<\/p>\n

3) Thanos<\/p>\n

\"\"image courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures<\/p>\n

The first time we see Thanos\u2019 face in the MCU it\u2019s not Josh Brolin\u2019s, but rather Damion Poitier\u2019s. Poitier was never intended to be the permanent Thanos. He\u2019s the biggest villain of the universe<\/a>, it\u2019s only natural that the part would end up going to a bigger name in the business. Thus, you have Brolin taking over the role in Guardians of the Galaxy.<\/p>\n

2) Thaddeus Ross<\/p>\n

\"\"image courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures<\/p>\n

For a while it sure did seem like the late William Hurt\u2019s General Thaddeus Ross was going to be a one-and-done, just like many other elements of The Incredible Hulk. But, as time and projects like She-Hulk: Attorney at Law and Captain America: Brave New World have shown, the MCU has embraced that film with open arms. At least, in hindsight.<\/p>\n

The first sign that was happening, though, was with the return of Hurt as Ross. It was a bit of a surprise to see him in Captain America: Civil War<\/a>, eight years after<\/a> his first and then most recent appearance. Hurt continued to play the role in Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Black Widow. However, he then passed in March of 2022, so he could not play the role in the movie where Ross is actually the villain, the aforementioned Brave New World. Harrison Ford stepped in for what is likely a genuine one-and-done appearance.<\/p>\n

1) War Machine<\/p>\n

\"\"image courtesy of walt disney studios motion pictures<\/p>\n

Given how Terrence Howard\u2019s James Rhodes basically looks right into the camera and says, \u201cI\u2019ll suit up next time,\u201d it\u2019s clear that the intention was to have him join the fight. And he did end up joining the fight against Whiplash and his army of drones in the third act of Iron Man 2, but it was Don Cheadle wearing the suit.<\/p>\n

When the first Iron Man was made, Howard\u2019s clout in the industry was rising. And, given how Robert Downey Jr. was seen as a liability at the time, Howard was the highest paid actor of the film. Usually, when it\u2019s time to come back for a sequel, a returning actor\u2019s pay is raised. However, it was clear immediately that Downey Jr. was the number one draw for this franchise, so his pay skyrocketed while Howard\u2019s pay not only didn\u2019t go up but was actually going to go down. Don Cheadle came in and has remained a steady presence ever since 2010. Most would say it was an improvement of a recast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Believe it or not, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been going for nearly 20 years now. For those…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,46,51891,1724,397],"class_list":["post-310519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-list-feature","tag-marvel-cinematic-universe","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}