There are arguments to be made both for and against sequels since they are sometimes inferior to the original movie but every now and then can be exceptional and even better. But the trick of doing a sequel is being able to get all of the cast back in the act, not just a couple of them. It definitely helps if the lead character can be brought back since without them the story tends to need an adjustment in a big way since just slamming someone else into the role isn’t a good idea a lot of the time considering that the new person needs to be able to pick up where the first person left off or will have to create an entirely new character. A lot of times the main actor might be given an offer that they’d be kind of nuts to refuse, but they’ve done so anyway simply because they don’t like the script or are kind of busy at the moment. There are plenty of other reasons why actors say no to sequels, but the usual idea is that they say no because they simply don’t want to trample over the first movie.
Here are a few actors that refused to do sequels for a movie.
5. Alan Cumming – X2: X-Men United
When one thinks of the process of putting on all that makeup for three movies it could be argued that Alan Cumming’s transformation into Nightcrawler wasn’t too bad when compared to Rebecca Romjin’s turn into Mystique. But this was the big reason why he didn’t want to come back for the third movie since the process was kind of grueling and he didn’t fancy another few hours in a makeup chair. To be realistic, he wasn’t that bad at the role, but he also wasn’t given quite the same mobility that the actor who took over the role years later was given. As one of my own personal favorites, Nightcrawler is definitely one of the more interesting mutants.
4. Crispin Glover – Back to the Future
As a lot of people know by now this issue led to a fiasco since those in charge of making Back to the Future II went ahead and used Glover’s likeness anyway and found themselves in a spot of trouble for it since Glover never gave his consent. He’d stepped away from a return to the role already due to creative differences and a salary dispute, which is another issue that we won’t get into at the moment. But the fact is that despite the fact that he wanted a little too much for his role, Crispin did feel slighted that his likeness was used, and there’s nothing to indicate that he was wrong for feeling this way.
3. Jim Carrey – The Mask
The sequel to this movie was actually never made because Carrey turned down a pretty big sum of money. But Son of the Mask was brought out in the 2000s as a commercial flop since if you can guess, it didn’t really have any of the charm that the original movie had and was kind of a creepy movie to begin with. But to see Jim shy away from a movie isn’t too surprising, especially since it felt as though he’d done everything he needed to do in this one and had reached a rather nice ending that didn’t need any additional work. Taking the story any further would have just ruined it, but then that’s what Hollywood aims to do if it makes a buck.
2. Katie Holmes – Batman Begins
There’s been a bit of debate over what really prompted the desire to distance herself from this role, but Katie Holmes was pretty adamant about her role in the Batman movies being a one and done kind of thing. She was replaced by Maggie Gyllenhaal in The Dark Knight and we all know how that ended up, but it does feel as though the female characters in these movies weren’t really that effective to start with until we reached The Dark Knight Rises, when they turned entirely duplicitous and made it clear that they were empowered women that didn’t need men. Maybe Rachel’s death was symbolic somehow.
1. Keanu Reeves – Speed
The popular opinion is that he was working on another movie right before he would have been asked to take on this project and he needed a break. But another theory is that the script just wasn’t that great and it was a little too obvious since Speed 2 didn’t have much of anything when compared to the first movie, which has been criticized and analyzed to death by now. But all in all, it’s not a bad idea that Keanu said no to this one since he’s gone on to become one of the biggest action stars of all time in recent years.
Sometimes saying no is the better option.
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