Casting is rarely just about one role. When a director takes a chance on someone unexpected, or an actor says yes to a project everyone else passed on, the ripple effects can reshape entire careers and franchises. One decision leads to another and then another.
These ten casting moments did exactly that. A single role opened a door, which opened five more doors behind it. Some were surprises. Some were gambles. All of them changed Hollywood in ways nobody fully predicted when the ink dried on the contract.
Robert Pattinson as Batman, from Twilight joke to critical darling
When Warner Bros. announced Robert Pattinson as Batman in May 2019, fans launched an online petition with nearly 7,000 signatures demanding the studio reconsider. The backlash was fierce because most people still associated him exclusively with the Twilight franchise, which ended in 2012.
But director Matt Reeves had written the entire script with Pattinson in mind after seeing his performance in the Safdie Brothers’ 2017 indie thriller Good Time. The Batman released on March 4, 2022, grossed $772 million worldwide, and earned three Academy Award nominations. The casting silenced every critic and set off a planned Batman trilogy with multiple HBO Max spin-off series in development.
Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, the role that almost never existed
Ryan Reynolds had been trying to make a proper Deadpool film since 2004. After his version of the character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009 was widely mocked, Fox showed little interest in reviving the project. Reynolds and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick kept developing it anyway.
Fox approved Deadpool in 2014 with a budget of $58 million. It grossed $782 million, becoming a record-breaking R-rated film. This success led to a $110 million sequel in 2018 and a Deadpool-Wolverine film grossing $1.338 billion in 2024.
Austin Butler as Elvis, the audition tape that opened every door
Austin Butler sent Baz Luhrmann an audition tape of himself singing “Unchained Melody” in his bathrobe after having a nightmare about his mother’s death. He was competing against Miles Teller and Harry Styles, among others, for the role of Elvis Presley in Luhrmann’s 2022 biopic.
Butler spent a full year before production began working with movement, dialect, and acting coaches. He won both the BAFTA Award and the Golden Globe for Best Actor and earned an Academy Award nomination. The role led directly to his casting as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen in Dune Part Two in 2024 and the lead role in The Bikeriders the same year.
Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, a franchise built around one person
Denis Villeneuve wrote the script for Dune with Timothee Chalamet specifically in mind for the lead role. Warner Bros. released Dune Part One in October 2021 simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max, a decision that limited its box office to $406 million globally, though it still won six Academy Awards including Best Cinematography.
The film was successful enough to greenlight Dune Part Two, which was released exclusively in theaters in March 2024 and grossed $711 million worldwide. Chalamet’s confirmed bankability on Dune directly contributed to his casting in A Complete Unknown the same year, a Bob Dylan biopic for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.
Florence Pugh in Midsommar, the horror film that built a Marvel career
Florence Pugh starred in Ari Aster’s folk horror film Midsommar in 2019, playing an emotionally devastated young woman drawn into a Swedish cult. The performance was widely praised and earned her comparisons to some of the most acclaimed actress performances in recent memory, despite the film being a niche horror release.
Marvel Studios cast her directly off that performance as Yelena Belova in Black Widow in 2021. She went on to appear in Hawkeye on Disney Plus, Oppenheimer in 2023, Dune Part Two in 2024, and Thunderbolts in 2025, a film critics widely called one of the best MCU movies in years. An experimental horror film became the audition tape that launched one of the most diverse careers in modern Hollywood.
Margot Robbie in The Wolf of Wall Street, the role that built LuckyChap
Margot Robbie had only a handful of television credits when Martin Scorsese cast her opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street in 2013. The film grossed $392 million worldwide and was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture. Robbie’s performance made her an immediate Hollywood name.
She used that platform to launch her production company LuckyChap Entertainment, which she co-founded in 2014. LuckyChap went on to produce I Tonya in 2017, Promising Young Woman in 2020, and Saltburn in 2023. It also produced Barbie in 2023, which grossed $1.44 billion worldwide, the highest-grossing film of that year.
Sydney Sweeney in Euphoria, the show that changed everything
Sydney Sweeney was cast as Cassie Howard in HBO’s Euphoria, which premiered in June 2019. The show became a cultural phenomenon, with Season 2 episodes averaging 16.3 million viewers per episode across all platforms in early 2022, making it HBO’s most-watched show since Game of Thrones at that point.
The attention from Euphoria led directly to her leads in Reality in 2023, Anyone But You in 2024, and Immaculate in 2024. Her Anyone But You co-star Glen Powell became a major star off the same film, creating a double domino effect from one rom-com. She also launched her own production company, Fifty-Fifty Films, giving her creative control over future projects.
Glen Powell in Top Gun: Maverick, the supporting role that made a leading man
Glen Powell played Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, a supporting role in one of the biggest box office hits of that year. The film grossed $1.493 billion worldwide, becoming Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing film ever. Powell’s charisma in a small role drew significant industry attention.
That one supporting turn led directly to the lead role in Anyone But You in 2023 alongside Sydney Sweeney, which grossed over $200 million worldwide on a modest budget. He then headlined Twisters in 2024, which grossed $372 million worldwide and finished as the eighth highest-grossing film of the year in the US.
Anya Taylor-Joy in The Queen’s Gambit, the chess prodigy who became a franchise anchor
Anya Taylor-Joy was cast as Beth Harmon in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, a limited series released in October 2020. The show became one of Netflix’s most-watched limited series of all time, drawing 62 million households in its first month, and won 11 Primetime Emmy Awards.
That singular performance made her the go-to choice for ambitious directors. She was cast in George Miller’s Furiosa as the young Furiosa in 2024, earning strong reviews. She also continued her collaboration with Robert Eggers, who had cast her in his 2015 debut The Witch, by appearing in The Northman in 2022.
Zendaya in Euphoria, the Disney star who redefined what Disney Stars could become
Zendaya had built her name through Disney Channel before HBO cast her as Rue Bennett in Euphoria in 2019. The role was a deliberate pivot toward serious dramatic work that her earlier career had not allowed. The series required her to portray addiction, trauma, and emotional collapse at a level rarely asked of actors her age.
In 2020, at age 24, she became the youngest actress ever to win the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She won the award again in 2022 for the same role. The Euphoria casting directly led to her roles in the Dune franchise and Challengers in 2024.
Featured Image: Photo by Maximilian Bühn on Wikimedia Commons
