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43 Times Actors Left Franchises, But Their Careers Never Recovered From The Change
Fans tend to associate actors with the specific characters they play in well-known franchises. Their roles can be so legendary that they practically become those characters. And yet, some stars think that they have outgrown their roles and set out to look for greener pastures.
In a discussion sparked by the ‘Random Question Time’ account, internet users revealed the actors and actresses whose careers didn’t survive this shift. These stars left their franchises looking for something better, and they never recovered.
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#1
David Caruso. Thread closed.
DADDY_AL:
He left NYPD BLue because he won a Golden Globe his first season and thought he was a hot commodity, and deserved a raise because of it. He was wrong.
RELATED:
#2
Stuart Townsend was originally cast as Aragorn in LOTR. He didn't want to play nice with the cast and refused to learn how to ride horses and train with sword, etc. They fired him and replaced him with Viggo Mortensen, and the rest is history.
#3
Are you kidding me?? Terrence Howard in the Marvel series. Dude fumbled the bag in the most egregious way.
itscrawdaddy11:
Terrence Howard was in the MCU lol wanted more money, got replaced by Don Cheadle.
According to Box Office Mojo, the biggest movie franchise in the United States and Canada is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, worth a whopping $13.1 billion dollars. The MCU has 44 releases, and the top one is Avengers: Endgame, with a lifetime gross of over $858 million.
Other massively popular franchises include Star Wars (worth $5.1 billion), Disney Live Action Reimaginings (nearly $3.5 billion), Spider-Man ($3.3 billion), and the DC Extended Universe ($3.1 billion).
#4
Katie Holmes. Dark Knight.
4headWrinkles:
Marrying a cult member didn't help much either.
#5
McLean Stevenson from M*A*S*H. He left to pursue other opportunities and to avoid being typecast. He did work after leaving, but nothing as notable as Col. Henry Blake. *He did have a doozy of a send off though.
#6
Katherine Heigl was never as popular after she left Grey’s Anatomy.
No matter the profession, many people naturally want change at some point in their lives. Sure, stability is great, but it’s difficult to play the same role your entire life. You want something new. Something fresh. Something challenging. Something potentially better. This can be both exciting and utterly frightening. There’s no guarantee that you’ll find something better… and yet, you might.
And some actors believe that they’ve either outgrown some projects and need to move on to something different, or they think that they’ve become so talented that the franchises are beneath them.
As fans, the healthy thing to do would be to support the stars we claim to love while they start these new adventures. Well, so long as the celebrity is kind, wholesome, grounded, and humble. If they’re suddenly overly arrogant and unpleasant, they might lose a few fans.
#7
Joey Tribbiani - Days of Our Lives.
Miracle Max 8 hours ago
He didn't "leave the show" he annoyed the writers and got dropped down an elevator shaft! Still made a nice comeback later on!
#8
Julianna Margulies, she admitted this.
ca420111:
She left cause she thought she was going to be a movie star. And if you think The Good Wife was as big as ER, you're dreaming.
Malgosia Garnys:
She definitely left! Producers begged her to stay with a $27M offer and she still said no. She’s the rare actor who actually valued the ending of the character more than the money. It's all in her book Sunshine Girl if you want the real tea.
#9
Topher Grace. He had a cameo and briefly another sitcom but never the same success as on That '70s Show.
What are your favorite franchises, and who are your most beloved actors and actresses, dear Pandas? Why do you love them so much?
Have any stars quit their franchises in a way that completely devastated you? What is your dream franchise-actor pairing that you’d be happy to make if you didn’t have to worry about the budget? Let us know!
#10
Rege Jean Page from Bridgerton. He should’ve followed Jonathan Bailey’s lead and stayed on the show to help his star rise.
hansdown14:
I feel like everyone forgets that Shonda Rhimes herself said that the original plan was always for Regé to be on bridgerton for ONE season. She said it twice. They asked if he would come back and he declined. It’s semantics but technically he didn’t leave ,he just didn’t come back. He was never supposed to.
Gerry Higgins 5 hours ago
He left just as Covid hit so that slowed down a lot of careers. He was in 'Dungeons & Dragons' last year with Chris Pine. Great movie.
#11
Emmy Rossum from Shameless.
doug_da_slug:
I’m on s11 and still wondering why she left because I haven’t seen her in anything.
#12
Eriq La Salle thought he was too good for ER and left to be a movie star…there were no movies.
#13
Nina Dobrev when she left Vampire Diaries.
lauraaa:
The reason she didnt renew was because her male costars were making more money than her when she was doing double the work. She played 2 different characters consistently and I think the network “forgot” to mention it before she signed.
#14
Zoe Wanamaker criticised the pay for the first Harry potter film and refused to sign a contract for sequels unless Warner Bros increased their rates. They didn't. she was written out of subsequent story lines.
#16
Honestly… Chris Meloni 😬 when he left SVU. I don’t think he anticipated for it go on another 14 seasons without him.
#17
Jessica Raine from “Call the Midwife”. She dropped the ball leaving as Jenny too soon.
#18
Delta Burke on Designing Women.
dyo1v7ark9gu:
Every episode had a dig about her weight and was a main feature in many episodes. It was destroying her mentally.
#20
Shemar Moore. I don't think he thinks he was too big for Criminal Minds but he wanted to expand his portfolio and do something different and has literally done nothing other than voice work and another cop show.
Gerry Higgins 5 hours ago
He was on S.W.A.T. from 2017-2025 and now he's on the sequel S.W.A.T. Exiles That's pretty consistent work.
#21
Shannen Doherty and everything she was in... Always thought she was irreplaceable and yet was always proven wrong.
#22
Megan Fox with the Transformer franchise. She says she left, Bay said Spielberg said to fire her, but whatever it was, her career fizzled afterward.
Claudia Cielensky 8 hours ago
It is my understanding that she was somewhat blacklisted after calling Bay out for being a s****l predator.
#23
Lisa Bonet... After she left The Cosby show and Different world she was never quite as popular as she was back then! Now you hardly ever hear of her...
#24
Dan Stevens from Downton Abbey.
ohnothankyou863:
The one guy from Downton Abbey....Cousin Matthew. I was so in love w him.... ugh. He left and never really materialized into a big name.
Ashtophet’sRevenge 7 hours ago
Dan Stevens is in everything, more than you think. Personally I loved Legion, but I can imagine it’s not everyone’s kind of TV!
#25
I’m gonna get hate, but literally anyone who ever left Grey’s Anatomy - especially Patrick Dempsey & Katherine Heigl.
#26
Andrew Lincoln, Walking Dead.
Gambit:
His character was played out, I agree with him leaving. He came back to the spin off "The walking dead: The ones who live" and actually became relevant again.
#27
Misha Barton left the OC and did maybe 2 low budget films and basically disappeared.
#28
Jessica Brown Findlay - Dowton Abbey. I feel like if she had stayed longer while doing other projects she could have been the next huge British actress that’s known for decades - ie the next Maggie Smith & instead she’s only had a few moderate successes after.
#29
Ja Rule was supposed to be in more Fast and the Furious movies, but he wanted more money and Ludacris got the role.
Michael P. 1 hour ago
Ja Rule was cast into a Steven Seagal movie, that probably sank his career.
#30
Lacey Chabert left Family Guy as the voice of Meg because she didn’t think that show would go anywhere… 😳 I had to look up her name cause I never remember it.
#31
Lowkey Dacre Montgomery? I mean he’s not doing that bad but recently I heard that it was his choice to leave Stranger Things, the directors had other plans with him. But looking now at season 5 seems like a good choice tho.
#32
girl who played Maggie in The Walking Dead, her show flopped then she came crawling back
#33
Crispin Glover that is why they used a look a like in part 2 of bttf.
#34
That Mark guy from the first two seasons of Parks and Recreation. They brought in Rob Lowe and Adam Scott and the show got sooooo much better.
Michael Melfa 6 hours ago
Not really his fault. Creative had nothing for him to do, so he got written out.
#35
SEVERAL have left SNL prematurely. Some do great like Jimmy Fallon - and some are never heard from again: Ellen Cleghorne, Victoria Jackson, Cheri Oteri ...
#36
Jill Marie Jones from Girlfriends. She gave up her role as Toni Childs when the ratings were at an all time high because she thought she could move on to a bigger role. She never got anything bigger than that role.
#37
Crystal Reed aka Allison from Teen Wolf.
Bartlet for world domination 3 hours ago (edited)
Gotham, Swamp Thing, Pinball and the Teen Wolf movie. I don't think her career stalled in any way.
#38
Terry Ferrel, though it's disputed what really happened to cause her to leave DS9.
Ye Olde Dirty Grumpy 6 hours ago
Becker. She wanted to do both, but DS9 thought k*****g her would free up Worf. He's better as a widower. No love for Worf.O'Brien must suffer. FYI for non hardcore Trekkers: SPOCK in Strange New Worlds must also suffer and be unloved. Part of Chapel's arc is to break Spock so that he never marries, because of canon. In TOS she regrets this, but SNW establishes Spock hardening his heart, to undergo Paltorfan in TMP, total denial of emotion. Remember: Sarek rejects him. ONLY Amanda is allowed to love him
#39
Victoria Justice, Victorious. Ariana Grande tweeted something about it.
#41
Jessica Biel left 7th Heaven.
#42
I don't care what anyone says, Henry Cavill has had 2 (and mission impossible, though that was a 1 off) and nothing has come of them. It's not just the studios at this point!!
#43
Christopher Eccleston, left Doctor Who after one season because he didn't be live in the success of the series.
What do you think ?
Brian Droste 4 hours ago
A lot of these shows I never watched so I don't recognize a lot of these actors/actresses. When a person wants to be a actor or actress and get on a show they should stick with it because they never know when your career will end. If a person gets on a show and it becomes popular and ratings go up and the studio is making money, I understand that the actor or actress want more money but they should not push it to far. They could be written out of the show. Sounds like some of these actors/actresses got a big head and thought they more of themselves than what they actually were.
Mook The Mediocre 1 hour ago
You need to remember that an actor in a high-rating show may earn enough in a few episodes to keep average citizens financially comfortable for the rest of their lives. TV actors can earn as much in one week as I did in 30 years of teaching.
Brian Droste 4 hours ago
A lot of these shows I never watched so I don't recognize a lot of these actors/actresses. When a person wants to be a actor or actress and get on a show they should stick with it because they never know when your career will end. If a person gets on a show and it becomes popular and ratings go up and the studio is making money, I understand that the actor or actress want more money but they should not push it to far. They could be written out of the show. Sounds like some of these actors/actresses got a big head and thought they more of themselves than what they actually were.
Mook The Mediocre 1 hour ago
You need to remember that an actor in a high-rating show may earn enough in a few episodes to keep average citizens financially comfortable for the rest of their lives. TV actors can earn as much in one week as I did in 30 years of teaching.
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