Some recasts completely break the internet. And usually not in a good way. A very clear instance of this phenomenon is the overwhelming negative reaction to Liam Hemsworth replacing Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia on The Witcher. There have been times, though, when a swap has happened so quietly that casual viewers, and even die-hard fans, didn’t catch on immediately, or even if they did, they didn’t care much about it.
Perfect timing played a huge part. So did bigger dramas that hogged all the attention. Genre shows are especially good at pulling this off and getting away with it, since an ensemble cast makes a new face quite easy to miss or overlook. Each entry below breaks down why the recast happened and why nobody seemed to care… much.
1. Mandy Milkovich – Shameless (Jane Levy to Emma Greenwell)
Jane Levy appeared as Mandy Milkovich in five episodes of Shameless season 1. Then she left to become the lead on ABC’s Suburgatory, which makes sense career-wise, because a lead beats a recurring character every time. Her departure opened the door for Emma Greenwell to step in as Mandy in season 2. Greenwell turned Mandy into a more interesting character than the first five episodes suggested, especially once she got tangled up with Lip and Mickey.
She ended up staying for five years as a result. Most people who found Shameless through word of mouth started watching the show from season 2 anyway, so Levy’s version might as well not exist to them. The recast happened before Mandy became important to the plot, and that’s why it landed so softly. Also, Levy’s top billing status on Suburgatory meant the whole thing worked out for everyone in the end.
2. Daario Naharis – Game of Thrones (Ed Skrein to Michiel Huisman)
Ed Skrein’s exit from Game of Thrones is still pretty hazy. He played Daario Naharis for three episodes in Season 3. Then Michiel Huisman took over from Season 4 through 6. The official story for Skrein’s departure kept changing. First, it was scheduling conflicts; then Skrein later hinted that it wasn’t really his choice. HBO never bothered to clear things up either way, and Skrein went on to reboot the Transporter franchise.
By that point, the show had already recast Daenerys from the unaired pilot episode. They also swapped both young Lannister kids and cycled through three different actors for the role of Gregor Clegane, aka The Mountain. So one more new face barely caused a ripple. In any case, fans were far more obsessed with dissecting the Red Wedding to notice that some sellsword looked a little different.
3. Naevia – Spartacus (Lesley-Ann Brandt to Cynthia Addai-Robinson)
2010 was a brutal year for Spartacus fans. The show’s lead actor, Andy Whitfield, was diagnosed with cancer in March of that year. So production shut down for over a year, with everyone hoping and praying that he would beat the disease. He ultimately lost that battle and passed away before a new season aired. When filming finally began for Season 2 (Vengeance), Lesley-Ann Brandt had moved on, choosing not to renew her contract as Naevia after landing a recurring role on CSI: NY.
So Cynthia Addai-Robinson took over and remained Naevia until the show eventually wrapped. Not many fans actually cared about the Naevia swap, in part because they were used to the cast shakeups from the prequel season. But it was mainly because fans still struggled with Whitfield’s passing.
4. Reggie Mantle – Riverdale (Ross Butler to Charles Melton)
Netflix gets all the credit for this swap. In the first 13 episodes of Riverdale, Ross Butler played the jock Reggie Mantle, and when 13 Reasons Why came around, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play Zach Dempsey because he connected more with the character on a deeper, more realistic level. Charles Melton picked up the mantle of Reggie Mantle in season 2 and stayed until the series finale. He even got promoted to series regular in due course.
This recast went so smoothly that Butler actually returned for a cameo in the show’s 100th episode, standing right next to Melton. And it didn’t feel awkward at all. Melton played Reggie with more edge and more toughness, which fit where Riverdale was heading anyway (into total chaos). Plus, he started dating co-star Camila Mendes in real life, which is basically the most Riverdale thing ever.
5. Jesus Adams Foster – The Fosters (Jake T. Austin to Noah Centineo)
The Fosters pulled a classic soap opera trick to cover this one. Jake T. Austin played Jesus Adams Foster for the first two seasons of the show. Then he announced that he was leaving right after his character got hit by a car in the Season 2 finale. Season 3 began with the twist that Jesus had survived (of course he did). He’d just been shipped off to boarding school, keeping him off-screen and conveniently out of sight for months.
When he eventually returned later that season, Noah Centineo was in the role, and the show tried to explain the new face with a cosmetic-surgery storyline tied to the accident. Fans found that explanation more amusing than convincing, especially because Centineo looked nothing like Austin. But he kept the role until the end and went on to become a teen heartthrob in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
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