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Perfect casting doesn’t always mean a successful movie, and you don’t need to look through the 2024 movie schedule to prove that fact. As luck would have it, some movie fans have started discussing great casting choices wasted on bad films and/or dead end franchises. While Henry Cavill has taken the lead as the patron saint of this particular subject, there are plenty of other candidates that make just as much sense.
The Many Wasted Opportunities Of Henry Cavill
To start us off right, I’m going to include the full prompt that saw the users of Reddit sending their regards to the former Witcher star. It seems only fair, because it’s not just bad movies that are on the menu here. So for a full picture of what we’re dealing with, read the following question:
Actors/Actresses you believe was the perfect casting choice for their role, but at the same time was wasted potential because of the writing/direction of the movie(s)?
Unsurprisingly, Henry Cavill’s work on The Witcher rose through the ranks to be one of the highest rated comments from this pool of Redditors. There’s also mention of the failure to capitalize on the franchise potential started in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Between that mention and the comment that someone posts about Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond movies wasting his talents in the role, my spy movie-loving heart feels quite wounded.
However, the post’s inspiration came from a more common thorn in the side of cinematic aficionados that I can totally identify with. You see, folks: the Redditor who posed this question used a photo of Cavill from Man of Steel as the bait for this particular hook.
Considering how there are still teases hinting towards a potential future for DC’s Snyder-verse, I still feel those pangs of pain rather freshly – especially since that hot topic in particular lead to a whole raft of A-list comic casting that ultimately went nowhere.
The Graveyard Of Wasted Comic Movie Casting Is Pretty Expansive
Forgive me if this write-up turns into a therapy session for some pretty huge whiffs in the world of comic casting, but the folks on the internet seem to be stuck on that subject. At least that’s what it looks like when it came to further responses on this question of the moment.
Check out these further suggestions, one of which is mourning an upcoming Marvel movie before it’s even happened:
- “This was the very first thought that crossed my mind when this question was asked. Bale gave an absolutely stupendous and genuinely creepy performance [in Thor: Love and Thunder]…Just to have shrieking goats in the very next scene.” – @0hMyGandhi
- “I have such mixed feelings about [Birds of Prey]. On the one hand, it’s incredibly fun and well cast. On the other hand, what the fuck did they do to the characters? Huntress and Montoya were ok, I can forgive Black Canary, but that was Cassandra Cain in name only … It felt almost disrespectful.” – @mahnamahnaaa
- “Jim Carrey as The Riddler. Too campy, they ruined it by pairing him Tommy Lee Jones. He’s natural ability, could have been an absolutely terrifying version of an Unhinged Genius puzzler.” – @HangmanGentry11
- “I feel like Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man is the easiest choice.” – @Enderstone_360
- “Mahershala Ali as Blade. Can’t believe Marvel fumbled that level of tone and talent.” – @Nylese
Ok, that comment about Mahershala Ali’s Blade reboot feels like a sore spot just waiting to happen, so I’m glad someone got ahead of the curve and addressed it now. But reading over that reminder of Jim Carrey/Tommy Lee Jones’ history of beef on the set of Batman Forever has me ready to defend the performance we got while also wanting to see the darker Riddler the comments above suggested.
Adding to my frustrations is the fact that the closest thing to fulfilling that prospect is the the well intentioned but seriously misguided The Number 23, which was also directed by Batman Forever helmer Joel Schumacher. If you want to see what a wasted opportunity really looks like, watch that movie and behold a novel premise absolutely failing in execution.
As you can see, there are plenty of examples of good casting being wasted in movies that were either bad or underappreciated at the time of release. And I’m willing to agree with the good people of Reddit that Henry Cavill has that unfortunate crown for the time being.
Fingers crossed those reports about Amazon’s supposedly troubled Warhammer 40K development process don’t add another jewel. In the meantime, if anyone else wants to metaphorically pour one out for Cavill or his fellow DCEU castmates, you can make use of your Max subscription and start streaming the once promising past of Warner Bros.’ legacy comic brand.