11 Actors People Thought Were Miscast At First, But Can't Imagine Changing Now

I’m going to be honest with you here: I wasn’t sure Selena Gomez was going to be the best pick for Only Murders In The Building until I saw the show. Now, though, I can’t even begin to think about anyone else playing Mabel. Funny how that happens, isn’t it?

It turns out I’m not alone in jumping the gun, either. In a recent Reddit post shared to r/moviecritic, site user u/phantom_avenger wanted to know about the times other Redditors’ prejudices were happily proven wrong. “Which actor or actress seemed miscast for a role, but ended up being perfect?” they asked. 

Here are some of the most-upvoted responses:

1) “Bruce Willis was not seen as an action hero, and then Die Hard happened.”

–u/dismayhurta 

“Bruce Willis as John McClane basically changed the trajectory of action heroes. Prior to Die Hard pretty much the only popular ones were the Stallone and Schwarzenegger types.” –u/thesirblondie

3) “When I saw previews for The Bourne Identity I was like, ‘Matt Damon as a badass superspy assassin? Ugh.’”

4) “Charlize Theron as Aileen Wuornos [in Monster].”

–u/Easton8 

“I watched the movie for a women’s issues class and I had the exact same reaction. She was so amazing in that movie.” –u/Parmesann

5) “Daniel Craig [initially] got a lot of hate for James Bond.”

6) “Hugh Jackman as Wolverine.”

”[I thought he was] much too tall, Australian, [and] mostly known as a stage actor primarily in musicals.” –u/Peanut_Champion

7) “I’m an old fart who remembers Michael Keaton being cast as Batman.”

8) “Robert Pattinson as Batman.”

“He absolutely killed it, when people talked so much sh*t about him being cast.” –u/cagingthing

9) “Colin Ferrell in The Penguin.”

10) “Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders.”

“Cillian’s appearance and stature don’t scream criminal gang boss but I couldn’t see anyone else as Tommy Shelby.” –u/Due-Secret-3091

11) “Chris Evans for Captain America.”

“At the time he had few serious roles in big films and was mostly seen as a comic relief actor. Boy did he prove everyone wrong.” –u/slinky317