When Casting Nailed It... Examples?

Kintarō Hattori

I'm currently rewatching Reaper and am hugely enjoying Ray Wise play the devil. I recalled that the first time around watching it he was the stand out character for me. Sadly I think the show went to just two seasons before two of the main stars decided they wanted to do other things.

So any other occasions where the casting team nailed it?

silverharp

i just started watching t's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, introducing danny devito in the second series looks like an inspired move

thelostboys23

James Gandolfini - Tony Soprano

castletownman

Boardwalk Empire.

Chalky White, Gyp Rossetti, Arnold Rothstein, Nelson Van Alden, Richard Harrow and Al Capone in particular are all superbly cast.

KaneToad

Ricky Tomlinson - Jim Royle

s3rtvdbwfj81ch

Benedict Cumberbatch - Sherlock Holmes

Idris Elba - Stringer Bell

Tony Sirico - Pauly Walnuts

Sean Bean - Eddard Stark

Bob Odenkirk - James McGill / Saul Goodman

Jonathan Banks - Mike Ehrmentraut

Agent Coulson

The female lifeguards of Baywatch.

Insect Overlord

Pat Laffan as Pat Mustard in Father Ted.

keepalive213

Office us

RocketRaccoon

Bryan Cranston - Walter White.

Initially it probably seemed a crazy idea to cast the slapstick dad from Malcolm in the Middle for such a role but he was just perfect.

JP Liz V1

Justified - Raylan and Boyd casting

Gorteen

David Aaron Proval (Richie Aprile in the Sopranos). A scary, psychopathic gangster if ever there was one

Gonad

Curb your Enthusiasim bringing Leon on board in season 6 . Genius

judeboy101

Jack gleeson, king Geoffrey

alta stare

Gonad wrote: »

Curb your Enthusiasim bringing Leon on board in season 6 . Genius

That show in itself is genius.

Gonad

alta stare wrote: »

That show in itself is genius.

I concur

Joe_ Public

Wasn’t David Jason a late call up to play Del Boy? Forget who was supposed to get the role but totally inconceivable seeing anybody else in it.

dudara

Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. He truly elevated the show

pixelburp

Shohreh Aghdashloo as Avarasala is a pitch perfect piece of casting for The Expanse.

_Kaiser_

Whatever about his off-screen life and activities, Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood in House of Cards was perfect. Continuing without him was a disaster IMO

Patrick Stewart as Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek TNG. Really hope they don't screw that up in the upcoming Picard series, but I'm not optimistic given Discovery

Pretty much most of the main cast of The Shield but especially Michael Chiklis as Vic and Walton Goggins as Shane

Larry Hagman as JR Ewing. Don't think anything more needs to be said?

John C. McGinley as Dr Cox on Scrubs.

_Kaiser_

dudara wrote: »

Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard. He truly elevated the show

Aah.. just beaten to it!! You're right though!

Insect Overlord

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Wasn’t David Jason a late call up to play Del Boy? Forget who was supposed to get the role but totally inconceivable seeing anybody else in it.

I think they had Jim Broadbent in mind for it at one stage. They eventually brought him in as a dodgy detective instead.

Gwynplaine

Arnie as the Terminator
Michael Caine as Alfred

Unearthly

Ian Mcshane - Al Swearengen. Deadwood

Agent Coulson

Michael Shanks playing James Spader's Daniel Jackson in SG1.

Ardent

Ray Liotta as Henry Hill in Goodfellas. A big part of that movie's greatness.

JP Liz V1

Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin in Firefly

Clareman

I agree with Patrick Stewart being a great Captain but I think he was terribly mis-cast as a French person, retiring to the vineyards or meeting his brother were terrible.

mloc123

Steve Carrell as Michael Scott, when you look at the other people that were in the running.

I thought Claire Foy was superb as the queen. Looking forward to seeing how Olivia Coleman does.

budgie412

Charles Dance as Tywin Lannister

Clareman

For me it can be easy to have 1 cast member perfect for a role but to get different cast members perfect not only for their own roles but to play off the other ones, for me the cast of Frasier was almost perfect, from an existing character of Frasier (set it stone) to the brother, the assistant/producer, the father, the helper, they were all perfect.

Capt'n Midnight

Neil Flynn as the Janitor in Scrubbs.

Paul Eddington and Nigel Hawthorne in Yes Minister.



Thor as Rygel in the Farscape spoof in Stargate SG-1's 200th episode.

JP Liz V1

mloc123 wrote: »

Steve Carrell as Michael Scott, when you look at the other people that were in the running.

Who else was in the running?

Lisha

Laura Linney in both the big C and Ozarks

Ash.J.Williams

eric bana played chopper Reed brilliantly

hamsterboy

Martin Sheehen as Josiah Bartlet in the West Wing.... Actually..... Every single main character in that show. Richard Schiff was epic as Toby, Alison Janney as CJ... the whole cast was just perfect

Agent Coulson

Rodney McKay Stargate Atlantis

the_pen_turner

simon baker as the mentalist

JP Liz V1

Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation

Rosie Rant

Tony Shalhoub as Monk
All of the cast from Buffy and Parks and Recreation
Aaron Paul as Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad
Tony Hale in Arrested Development and Veep

RHJ

Jon Bernthal for his portrayal of The Punisher

the_pen_turner

peter faulk as columbo

lbc2019

David Hyde Pearse as Niles Craine

JP Liz V1

David Suchet as Poirot

the_pen_turner

murdoc in the a team. you never could tell if he was nuts or faking it.

Heckler

Jason Beghe as Hank Voight and Amy Morton as Trudy Platt in Chicago PD.

Damon Lewis in Band of Brothers.

enfant terrible

Christian Bale in American Psycho.

Studio wanted Di Caprio but Mary Harron refused to do the movie without Bale, reason been he made her laugh so much as Bateman in his audition.

Pronto63

hamsterboy wrote: »

Martin Sheehen as Josiah Bartlet in the West Wing.... Actually..... Every single main character in that show. Richard Schiff was epic as Toby, Alison Janney as CJ... the whole cast was just perfect

Love, love, love this show.
The cast, production and the writing!!!!

tricky D

Jim Rockford, Rocky and Angel: James Garner, Noah Beery Jr. and Stuart Margolin.

Dank Janniels

Bella, Paul, and Leo Dowling!,