Take a good look… we’re going to recast these characters!
Horror movies love sequels and reboots. So, a recast is always around the corner. The Scariest Things is going to do what everybody fears: recasting movies that really shouldn’t be rebooted. BUT WE’RE DOING IT ANYWAYS! Redoing A Nightmare on Elm Street with blockbuster casts. Check! A reboot of Jaws with women in the lead? Done! Extending the It story to 27 years, for a Chapter 3 using a senior citizen cast. You betcha! And Hereditary, but swapping out for an all black cast? We can do that! Sacrilege? Absolutely, but you know you want to know who we picked!
It’s a cottage industry, predicting who Marvel or DC might cast for their superheroes. The anticipation of who might portray… say BATMAN… has been discussed in numerous podcasts and media posts. But horror movies? The reboots are frequent, but really not that memorable. Can you name all of the Jason Voorhees actors? (tick… tick… tick…)
However, there is a wonderful tradition with Dracula, in particular. This is just a portion of the casting call for the famous bloodsucker:
- Bela Lugosi
- Carlos Villarias
- Lon Chaney Jr.
- Christopher Lee
- John Carradine
- Udo Kier
- Klaus Kinski
- George Hamilton
- Frank Langella
- Gary Oldman
- Nicolas Cage
The Podcast: Episode 203: The Great Horror Recast
This was a fun episode. It is a long episode, but it’s totally worth listening to, because we know you do these experiments too! If you want to get the spoilers… read below for our selections. A little crazy, and not always on script, but this episode was a blast!
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Our Selections:
The original cast of A Nightmare on Elm Street: Heather Langenkamp, Johnny Depp, and Amanda Wyss
A Horror Recast of A Nightmare on Elm Street
(What was Mike thinking?)
| Character | Original Actor | Eric’s Pick | Heather’s Pick | Mike’s Pick |
| Freddy Krueger | Robert Englund | Andy Serkis | Bonnie Aarons | Kevin Durand |
| Nancy Thompson | Heather Langenkamp | Madeline McGraw | Nico Parker | Sydney Sweeney |
| Glen Lantz | Johnny Depp | Noah Toth | Michael Cimino | Austin Butler |
| Tina Grey | Amanda Wyss | Alisha Weir | Kathryn Newton | Margot Robbie |
| Rod Lane | Jsu Garcia | Noah Schnapp | Pete Davidson | (skipped) |
| Lt. Donald Thompson | John Saxon | Danny McBride | Billy Burke | Robert Forster |
| Marge Thompson | Ronee Blakley | Jennifer Aniston | Thandie Newton | Meryl Streep |
| Director | Wes Craven | Damien Leone | Lee Cronin | Christopher Nolan |
A Horror Recast of Jaws, but with a female cast
| Character | Original Actor | Eric’s Pick | Heather’s Pick | Mike’s Pick |
| Chief Brody | Roy Scheider | Emily Blunt | Jessica Chastain | Parker Posey |
| Quint | Robert Shaw | Allison Janney | Jodie Foster | Michelle Rodriguez |
| Hooper | Richard Dreyfuss | Mindy Kaling | Julia Garner | Sunita Mani |
| Ellen Brodie | Lorraine Gary | John Krasinski | Zoe Kravitz | Dennis Quaid |
| Charlie | Susan Backlinie | Chris Hemsworth | Tom Holland | Chris Hemsworth |
| Mayor Vaughn | Murray Hamilton | Amy Poehler | Viola Davis | Melissa McCarthy |
| Director | Steven Spielberg | Kathryn Bigelow | Anna Kendrick | Mary Harron |
It: Chapter 3: Casting 27 years after the previous film
| Character | Original Actor | Eric’s Pick | Heather’s Pick | Mike’s Pick |
| Pennywise | Bill Skaarsgard | Bill Skarsgard | Bill Skarsgard | *Tim Curry |
| Beverly Marsh | Sophia Lillis/ Jessica Chastain | Geena Davis | Francis Fisher | Julianne Moore |
| Bill Denbrough | Jayden Martell / James McAvoy | Kenneth Branagh | Pierce Brosnan | Ewan MacGregor |
| Richie Tozer | Finn Wolfhard/ Bill Hader | Jeffrey Goldblum | Liam Neeson | Dana Carvey |
| Mike Hanlon | Chosen Jacobs / Isiah Mustafa | Jeffrey Wright | Denzel Washington | Laurence Fishburn |
| Ben Hanscom | Jeremy Ray Taylor/ Jay Ryan | Vincent D’Onofrio | Don Johnson | Liam Neeson |
| Jack Dylan Glazer/ James Ransome | — | — | Hugh Grant | |
| Stanley Uris | Wyatt Oleff / Andy Bean | — | — | Hugh Jackman |
A Horror Recast of Hereditary, but with an all black cast
| Character | Original Actor | Eric’s Pick | Heather’s Pick | Mike’s Pick |
| Annie | Toni Collette | Taraji P Henson | Halle Berry | Regina King |
| Charlie | Milly Shapiro | Pria Ferguson | Storm Reid | Madison Currie |
| Steve | Gabriel Byrne | Sterling K Brown | Terrance Howard | Denzel Washington |
| Peter | Alex Wolff | Justice Smith | Miles Catton | Daniel Kaluuya |
| Joanie | Anna Down | Octavia Spencer | Pam Grier | Queen Latifa |
| Director | Ari Aster | Nia DaCosta | The Phillipou Brothers | Little Marvin |
| Location | Salt Lake City | Savannah | Boston | Washington DC |