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Recasting the Major Superhero Movies with Vintage Hollywood Stars

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | February 9, 2011 |

By Dustin Rowles | Lists | February 9, 2011 |


In the world in which we occupy, there is so much copy devoted to the casting of superhero movies that the films themselves often feel like an afterthought. Fanboys will often make up their mind about a film as soon as the lead has been cast. When Christopher Nolan recently chose Anne Hathaway as his Selena Kyle (Catwoman) in The Dark Knight Rises, there were actually people — despite Nolan’s track record — who gave up hope on the third film, who reckoned that Nolan had lost it, that the franchise had jumped the fridge. Meanwhile, three people in the world objected to the casting of Henry Cavill as Superman because he’s British, but there were about 4,000 posts across the interwebs dedicated to defending the casting choice against those three objections. Last week, when word broke that Lois Lane might not be the lead female in Man of Steel, there were a hundreds more articles devoted to who the character might be and who might play her.

It’s a game. A meaningless, but often fun game, this speculation. It’s like the free-agency market in baseball — movie blogs are sports talk radio for another demographic. It’s dream casting. Nobody gets hurt, so who are we to object?

In that vein, however, I thought: Let’s take that speculation to the next level. What if we were recasting the major superhero movies today using only actors from the 1950s and ’60s? Using what we know about the kind of person that the studios are looking for with these parts (based on who they have already cast), below are my choices.

You have a problem with them? Come up with your own. That’s the glory of the Internet. If enough consensus gets behind one choice, maybe it becomes next week’s rumor: “Zack Snyder decides to digitally insert Charlton Heston as Lex Luthor in Man of Steel.” It couldn’t be any more absurd than the Lindsay Lohan as Ursa rumors floating around right now.


Superman: Man of Steel

Gregory Peck as Superman

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Lauren Bacall Lois Lane

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Orson Welles as Lex Luthor

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Batman

Robert Redford as Batman

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Natalie Wood as Catwoman

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Warren Beatty as Bane

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Spider-Man

Spider-Man

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Ann Margret as Gwen Stacy

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Anthony Perkins as The Lizard

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The Green Lantern

Jimmy Stewart Hal Jordan

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Katherine Ross as Carol Ferris

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Peter O’Toole as Hector Hammond

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