10 Franchises That Changed Lead Characters Mid-Series

There’s that old expression: Dance with the one that brought you. In other words, when you succeed, remain loyal to those who supported you, and got you to that lofty perch in the first place. But in Hollywood, there’s another old expression: It’s show business, not show friendship.

Need proof? Check out this list of ten major franchises that cut ties with their heroes — and sometimes their entire casts — to focus on new protagonists. The reasons why vary from series to series, and we’ll explore them below, but they do ultimately come back around to the old expressions above: When budgets get to high, when storylines get too stale, things can change for a popular IP very quickly.

To really make this about franchises and not just individual movies, I set a guideline for this list: In order to qualify, whatever character or characters got the heave-ho needed to appear in at least two films before their replacement. There are tons of movies that got sequels with different characters from the original. Michael J. Fox only made one Teen Wolf before Jason Bateman took over for Teen Wolf Too. There are six Predator movies and six Predator protagonists — probably because the Predator, not the people, are the true draws.

All of the franchises below, on the other hand, really “belonged” to one or two people for several years (or decades, in at least one case) before they were summarily dismissed. It’s just goes to show, that other old expression is right: No one is indispensable.