Famous Movie Characters We Never Want To See Recast

"No actor owns a role" is an old acting term for a reason. If storytellers didn't abide by this maxim, nobody presently alive would've ever seen Hamlet, right? The rule makes sense most of the time ... but not all of the time. Some movie roles should never be recast. Maybe we're being too precious, or perhaps we're too high on the sweet nectar of nostalgia, but when certain actors play specific parts, magic happens that can't be matched.

In many cases, actors are just as much their character's creators  as the screenwriters or novelists who came up with them. When we think of the character, we think of the star portraying them. Sure, Hollywood can try to recast these parts (and probably will), but if they do, we're predicting disaster because moviegoers are nothing if not nostalgic. Did your favorites make the list, or do you think we're being too sentimental? Whatever side you're on, here are the famous movie characters we never want to see recast!

Some actors play a role, while some actors are a role. Nobody proved that more than the late, great Jim Varney. Despite his Shakespearean training, Varney will always be remembered as the big-hearted, small-brained, denim vest-wearing, Christmas-saving, troll-fighting, Mello Yello-drinking pitchman, Ernest P. Worrell. In the early 1980s, Varney was a down-on-his-luck actor and comedian when one gig changed his life. Ad man John Cherry III was unable to show a dilapidated theme park in commercials, so he created a lovable goofball who would talk about the theme park. That goofball? Ernest P. Worrell. 

One TV show, ten movies, and thousands (and thousands) of commercials later, Varney's Ernest became an icon of the era. It's impossible to imagine any other actor in the role, and thankfully, nobody has ever tried, though Variety reported in 2012 that Cherry was attempting a reboot called Son of Ernest, which thankfully never happened. Nobody else could else can ever play Ernest, and hopefully, nobody else will. Know what we mean?

There are stars, and then there's Eddie Murphy in the 1980s. Besides saving SNL at age 19, Murphy's two comedy albums went gold. Most comedians would've faded into obscurity (and drugs) at that point, but Murphy, still in his early 20s, was just getting started. First came 1982's 48 Hrs. with $75 million, then came 1983's Trading Places with $90 million, and then came ... uh, 1984's Best Defense with $19 million ...but then came Murphy's defining role — Axel Foley in Beverly Hills Cop. 

It's hard to be hyperbolic when describing Beverly Hills Cop. It was a star vehicle that was sold exclusively on Murphy's name, which was more valuable than expensive special effects. With $234 million domestically and $316 million worldwide, Beverly Hills Cop was 1984's highest-grossing domestic release, topping even Ghostbusters and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. While the two sequels failed to connect in the same way, they still made enough to prove nobody should play Foley but Murphy. Sure enough, Deadline reported in 2019 Netflix is developing Beverly Hills Cop reboot, with Murphy back in the Detroit Lions jacket.

Quentin Tarantino has famously and frequently called Uma Thurman "his muse," though they've only worked together three times — on Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2. In the two Kill Bill films, Thurman plays Beatrix Kiddo, aka the Bride, a vengeful assassin gunned down on her wedding day by her homicidal former employer and lover, the titular Bill. The Bride is Thurman's most famous character and one of Tarantino's, too. And according to a Thurman interview with Today in 2004, Kiddo was the result of late-night discussions between the director and star. 

The Bride's look is iconic — a statuesque, blood-stained blonde in a yellow jumpsuit (borrowed from Bruce Lee's Game of Death) with a sword sharp enough to cut through, well, everything. Only Thurman should play the Bride, but after what happened to her while filming, no other actress may want to. Thurman revealed to The New York Times in 2018 that, despite her objections, Tarantino forced her to do a stunt that nearly killed her. However, Thurman also told Entertainment Weekly that she's open to working with Tarantino again.

John Carpenter popularized the slasher genre's tropes with Halloween – the unstoppable killer, randy teenagers getting mutilated, and the virginal innocent who saves the day. But as Laurie Strode, Jamie Lee Curtis didn't just save the day in the movie. She's actually saved the franchise twice! Halloween was a huge hit in 1978 with $70 million, but after Halloween II's underwhelming $25 million, Curtis was out, and the series suffered creatively and commercially. Two decades after the original, Curtis returned for 1998's Halloween: H20 (a sequel that erased Halloween 3-6) but was unwisely killed off early in 2002's Halloween: Resurrection, though both movies outperformed previous entries. 

Rob Zombie's reboots, Halloween and Halloween II, recast Laurie Strode with Scout Taylor-Compton, but just like a killer horror villain, you just can't keep a good actor/character combo down. Curtis returned for David Gordon Green's Halloween in 2018, a direct sequel to the original (notice a pattern?), which was a good call. Halloween made $255 million worldwide, 25 times its $10 million budget. Naturally, Curtis is set to return for the two sequels because Hollywood likes money.

Back to the Future remake pitches happen so much that we want to go back in time and stop them (after saving Harambe, of course). Back in 2010, Deadline reported Warner Brothers wanted to remake Future with Zac Efron as Marty McFly. At the time, this bugged us because Efron was still the High School Musical guy, but now that he's established himself as a charismatic leading man ... it still really bugs us. While the "Efron as McFly" remake probably won't happen, don't buy a pair of Nike Air Mags to celebrate just yet. 

Tom Holland admitted to BBC Radio 1 that there had been "conversations" about him accepting the part, but he added, "[Back To The Future] is one of the most perfect films, one that could never be made better." Exactly! See, Holland gets it. You can't improve on perfection, so we never want to see Hollywood recast Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly — or for that matter Christopher Lloyd as Doc Emmett Brown. 

Despite her many scene-stealing performances, Jennifer Lawrence's signature role is definitely Katniss Everdeen, the heroine of The Hunger Games series. Lawrence earned an Academy Award nomination for 2011's Winter's Bone and, like most rising indie talents, she followed that with a studio blockbuster, playing Mystique in 2011's X-Men: First Class. However, it wasn't until 2012 that her career leveled up, starring as Katniss — then one of the most sought-after roles in Hollywood — in the $677 million-grossing The Hunger Games. (It was also the year she gave her Oscar-winning performance for Silver Linings Playbook.) 

Lawrence and Katniss went together like a bow and arrow, as her gravitas, poise, and presence elevated what could've been just another movie based on a YA novel. Lawrence's casting wasn't without controversy, as Katniss is ethnically ambiguous in the books. Talent won out, though, as Lawrence's audition "blew [the filmmakers] away" according to reports. In 2019, Lionsgate announced a new Hunger Games prequel series without Lawrence. Wisely, nobody else will be drawing Katniss' bow.

The Alien franchise was a different kind of horror series, so naturally, Sigourney Weaver's Lieutenant Ellen Ripley was a different kind of hero. With only a few soap opera roles and a small part in Annie Hall on her resume, Weaver shocked moviegoers in 1979 when Ripley was the sole survivor of the USCSS Nostromo. By 1986, Weaver was a big star, but she surprised fans again when Ripley became a gun-toting, robot suit-wearing badass. Yet in her protection of the orphaned Newt, Ripley showed a maternal affection you'd never see from Schwarzenegger or Stallone. 

Ripley was a complex, compelling character, and Weaver's sequel performance rightly scored an Oscar nom, a rare honor for genre parts. While Alien director Ridley Scott told the L.A. Times the role was originally written to be a man, Ripley has become a feminist icon, one any actress would slay an army of acid-blooded aliens to play. Nobody but Weaver should. We'll shout it from space, even if nobody can hear us scream.