Infamous Actor Replacements That Made Movies Worse (2 of 5)

2. Peter Weller to Robert John Burke (RoboCop)

Weller’s steel-jawed swagger in RoboCop and its sequel gave the character heart and menace—he felt human inside that robotic chrome shell. For RoboCop 3, Weller was out, and Robert John Burke climbed into the suit. On paper, he embodied the role perfectly, but on screen, the magic vanished. The movements felt stiff, the delivery was off, and the snarky, authoritarian glint that made Weller so iconic never showed. Add a kid-friendlier script, and you’ve got an awkward tin man instead of Detroit’s emotionless avenger.

3. Christopher Lambert to James Remar (Raiden)

The first Mortal Kombat movie is goofy fun, powered partly by Christopher Lambert’s mischievous, thunder-dad Raiden. When the sequel Annihilation arrived, Lambert bailed (it’s like he knew it’d suck), and James Remar stepped in. Remar isn’t bad, but he just looks stranded in a movie that looks like it was rendered on a Game Boy. Cheap sets, chaotic plot, CG that aged in dog years—there was no saving this pile of crap. But losing Lambert’s charming Raiden made the downgrade feel even sharper.