r/FilmTalk • u/StructureWatcher • 19d ago

Discussion Why can Batman and Spider-Man survive recasting, while Iron Man or Wolverine feel tied to one actor?

I’ve been wondering why recasting works so differently depending on the character.

Batman and Spider-Man have both had several actors, and people seem able to accept a new version pretty quickly.

But with some characters, the actor and the role almost become the same thing. RDJ as Iron Man is the obvious example for me, and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine feels pretty similar.

I’m not sure it’s just about how good the actor was, though.

Maybe it matters how long they played the role, how successful that version became, whether the character was already famous before them, or how much the actor actually shaped the character people know.

So why do you think some characters survive recasting easily while others feel almost attached to one actor?

And which characters do you think would be hardest to recast?

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u/ArcherOld7796 19d ago

They never survived recasting. Each new Spider-Man and Batman is a new universe

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u/Prestigious_Plum9276 19d ago

At the time, Burton's and Schumacher's Batman films were considered as part of the same universe. That's generally no longer considered to be the case but it is still fair to say that the franchise survived recasting without a reboot in the 90s.

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u/Remarkable-Jelly-596 18d ago

I would say it very much didnt survive that recasting though. There was a downgrade from Michael Keaton's batman to Val Kilmer (not completely the actor's fault) and then from that to George Clooney... Clooney's film basically killed that timeline of Batman and we didnt get anything else until Nolan rebooted it.

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u/Prestigious_Plum9276 18d ago

Batman Forever very clearly did not kill the franchise seeing as it was a major box office success for the time. Batman and Robin is a different story but there's a lot to unpack with that movie.

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u/Remarkable-Jelly-596 18d ago

I didn't say it did, I said it was a downgrade. And I'd say at least a portion of its numbers were due to the good faith Burton and Keaton had built up. Clooney is what killed it.

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u/Prestigious_Plum9276 18d ago

That's quite literally what you said, actually. "It very much didn't survive that recasting"...

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u/paul_having_a_ball 18d ago

How many Batman movies did Val Kilmer end up doing?