Superhero Movies: Surprising Casting Choices So Far

Superhero movies have seen their share of surprising casting choices. They run the gamut from terrible to amazing.

It used to be that if you even considered making a superhero movie, you had to adhere to certain guidelines set by the comic books. Some casting choices were just incredibly dead-on, such as Patrick Stewart as Professor Xavier in X-Men, Michael Chiklis as The Thing in Fantastic Four, J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man, Kelsey Grammer as Beast in X-Men: The Last Stand, and Daniel Cudmore as Colossus in the same movie. There was just something about them that made sense when they were cast.

There are also some casting choices in superhero movies that made us scratch our heads in wonder, and Ben Affleck as Batman in the Man of Steel sequel is only the latest of them.

Batman and Robin‘s main characters seemed miscast almost all the way. Arnold Schwarzenegger turned Mr. Freeze into a pun-spewing idiot instead of a tragic man just wanting his wife back, and George Clooney was just awkward every second he was in that Batman suit. That entire superhero movie was an embarrassment.

Halle Berry as Storm in X-Men seemed an odd choice, because the comics usually portray Storm as a seasoned older woman, something Halle Berry obviously is not. Even her acting just didn’t seem to make most people believe she could fit the role.

Kevin Spacey’s Lex Luthor in Superman Returns was almost never believable. In fact, it seemed like he was just playing around and couldn’t take the role seriously himself.

Chris Evans was a surprising choice in a little superhero movie we call Captain America, considering that most of his big movies were comedies and it was tough to picture him with a straight face. He ended up being perfect for the role.

Jessica Alba was just a bad choice all around as Invisible Woman in Fantastic Four. The comic books usually have Susan Storm as a somewhat smart woman, and Jessica Alba just doesn’t pull that off at all.

Nicolas Cage‘s Ghost Rider was one of the strangest casting choices we’ve ever seen in a superhero movie. Almost nothing about that actor holds the menace we expect from that character, but thankfully with some sound mixing, the voice seemed dead-on when he went into ghost mode (in the first movie, anyway).

As you can see, Ben Affleck as Batman isn’t the first surprising casting choice for a superhero movie.