9 Marvel characters who were recast with different actors in the MCU

With Jonathan Majors fired from his role as Kang in the MCU after being convicted of misdemeanor assault and harassment, the future of Marvel’s whole next phase is in question. Kang was supposed to be the Thanos of Marvel’s next phase and be the “big bad” for a number of upcoming movies.

The next movie was going to be called Avengers: The Kang Dynasty for Pete’s sake! It’s hard to state just how much Disney and Marvel had invested in this storyline, and it was all on Majors’ very muscular back. Unfortunately, that back does not have the squeaky-clean image that Disney prefers.

Regardless, the implications are huge. Marvel Studios could either recast the role or go in a completely new direction. It seems like it would be hard to move forward with Kang considering Majors already put his stamp on it, but this is by no means the first time a major character has been recast:

Related: Best Marvel Post-Credits Scenes on The Mary Sue

Howard Stark

This one is pretty straightforward as the first actor to portray Howard Stark was unspoken, and in the words of the Canadian rock legends Nickelback, one just needs to “look at this photograph.” Gerard Sanders appeared with his arm around Jeff Bridges, but that’s all we saw of him.

When it came time to portray Howard in Iron Man 2, Avengers: Endgame and Captain America: Civil War, Marvel instead went with the stately and charismatic Mad Men alum John Slattery.

Cassie Lang

Cassie Lang has the distinction of being one of the few roles recast more than once. Our first brush with Cassie came way back in 2015 in the original Ant-Man. In that movie, Cassie was a kid and played by Abby Ryder Fortson.

She was cute and precocious, but after the Thanos snap and the five-year time gap, she needed to be aged up. Marvel chose to go with Emma Fuhrmann as the teenage Cassie.

Fuhrmann was replaced by Kathryn Newton in Quantumania. Director Peyton Reed said he chose Newton because he respected her as an actress, hinting that Marvel might very well have plans for the actress in future.

The Hulk/Bruce Banner

In 2008, when Marvel reacquired the rights to the Hulk, Edward Norton gave a perfectly acceptable and surprisingly nuanced performance as Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk, and it was assumed he would continue to play the role moving forward.

However, there were personal issues with Norton. He clashed with studio head Kevin Feige and was so angry with the final edit of the film that he refused to do press for the movie. Norton explained a few years later that he enjoyed making the movie but didn’t want to sign a contract to play the character for years to come.

This paved the way for Mark Ruffalo, who’s been playing the Hulk ever since. Norton’s version was ignored until it was obliquely referenced in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law when Ruffalo is fighting Abomination, who appeared in the 2008 film. During the fight, he says: “That fight was so many years ago, I’m a completely different person now — literally.”

James Rhodes/War Machine

This one was one of the more public recastings in Marvel history. Terrence Howard nailed the character of War Machine in the 2008 Iron Man. He brought a suave-ness to the character that was simultaneously alluring and dangerous. Howard was all set to play the character in the sequel, but as things do in Hollywood, egos and money got in the way.

Terrence claimed that Robert Downey Jr. got an incredible salary bump and his was cut back. We’ll never know what happened behind the scenes, but we do know that Marvel gave Howard’s replacement, Don Cheadle, a mere two hours to decide if he wanted to step in and sign a six-picture deal.

He was at his son’s birthday party, so Marvel gave him an extra hour to decide. The rest is history. It does make you wonder, though. Howard and Downey Jr. had quite the chemistry together.

Thanos

Before Thanos was brought to life by Josh Brolin, he was played by stunt performer Damion Poitier in the credits scene from The Avengers. It’s interesting to look back at the moment when he was introduced, without the knowledge of how iconic the villain he would become in the future.

Of course, Brolin would voice the character when he was a fully realized vision in Infinity War and Endgame, and Poitier didn’t even get to say a single line.

Red Skull

Consider this one more of a “soft” recast. The very capable Hugo Weaving took on the role of Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger, and he stamped his presence on the character in a way that was indelible and frightening.

Like Terrence Howard, Weaving wanted more money to come back to play the role but he couldn’t get Marvel to agree to his price. Perhaps because the character is so makeup-heavy and it’s hard to tell who’s behind the prosthetics, Marvel just hired someone to sound like Weaving.

Ross Marquand was tasked with taking up the role moving forward. While it is subtle, a close listen reveals that there are differences between the two.

Fandral

This was a weird one because Zachary Levi was initially cast to play Fandral, but had to leave the role because of his TV obligations for his TV show Chuck. This handed the role to Josh Dallas, who ended up playing the relatively minor character in the first Thor.

Dallas wasn’t able to reprise the role in The Dark World so it went back to Levi but, let’s face it, the parts were so small in both follow-ups that barely anyone noticed.

Mainframe

The AI character Mainframe appeared in the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 mid-credits scene and was voiced by Miley Cyrus. Unfortunately, due to scheduling constraints, she was unable to reprise her role in Vol. 3. Not that it was a huge part, but still.

The role went to none other than Tara Strong, one of the most well-known voice actresses out there. She’s probably best known to Marvel fans as Miss Minutes, from Loki.

General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross

William Hurt put an indelible stamp on General Thaddeus Ross when he played the character in The Incredible Hulk, Civil War, Infinity War, Endgame, and Black Widow. Tragically Hurt passed away in March of 2022 and the role was recast with none other than legendary actor Harrison Ford, who’s playing him in the sequel Captain America: Brave New World.

Unfortunately, it looks like Ford won’t be bringing back the iconic mustache made popular by Hurt. A real shame!