Superhero Movies Actors Regret Making

Who wouldn't want to star in a superhero movie? Being surrounded by A-list actors, working on a property that has a built-in fanbase, working with top directors, having the chance to become a household name, and the possibility of even higher-paying work in the form of sequels — it seems like quite a cushy life. The genre has exploded in recent years, so much so that even superhero films that don't fare so well with critics still have a good chance of making a ton of money at the box office.

However, while it can be easy for those of us who don't work in the film industry to assume that making a big-budget Hollywood movie is all glitz and glamor, we mustn't forget that there is a whole host of problems that can arise when shooting a flick about Wonder Woman or Captain America. Personality clashes, creative differences, script changes, and studio interference are just a handful of the many reasons that an actor may grow to hate their experience in a superhero movie, no matter how big the paycheck is. Let's take a look at some of the superhero movies that actors have regrets about making.

"Green Lantern" was the long-awaited big-screen appearance of the popular DC superhero, and to most audiences and critics, it wasn't worth the wait. The film follows brash but talented test pilot Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds), who is chosen by a glowing green power ring to join the Green Lantern Corps, an intergalactic police force. Hal is imbued with amazing gifts, including flight and the ability to conjure hard-light objects with his imagination. Ryan Reynolds is charming enough in a role that is sorely underdeveloped and is not helped by a boring, predictable script.

It was the script for "Green Lantern" that Reynolds had the biggest problem with. When Yahoo News asked Reynolds what lesson he learned from the film that he's bringing to "Deadpool," he responded with, "Well, script. When we shot 'Green Lantern,' nobody auditioning for the role ... was given the opportunity to read the script, because the script didn't exist. I'm not complaining about it — it was an opportunity of a lifetime, and if I were to go back and retrace my steps, I would probably do everything the exact same way. But script." Even the film's director, Martin Campbell isn't happy with the film.

It's probably safe to assume that "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" is not most people's favorite "X-Men" film or even their favorite "Wolverine" movie. While the film made a valiant attempt to chronicle Logan's long journey from Canadian roughneck to black ops soldier to the adamantium-clawed mutant we know and love, there were too many narrative missteps to allow the audience to truly care about the eponymous X-Man's life story. Of course, one of the most disappointing aspects of the film was the way it handled fan-favorite character Deadpool (played by Ryan Reynolds), which included turning the "Merc with a Mouth" into a mute for no reason.

While Reynolds does a terrific job of bringing the character to the big screen (at least in the scenes in which he's allowed to talk), Fox blew it when it came to giving Deadpool the respect he deserves. Reynolds himself had frustrations with Deadpool's initial introduction, going so far as to tell GQ that "I remember saying, 'You know, there are more Deadpool fans out there than you realize, and they're not gonna be happy with this.' I was met with a plausible reason, which was: 'We don't have enough time to develop a proper Deadpool suit and make him the fully realized version of the comic, so we're going with this.' But I was like, 'Then don't do it at all!'"

Based on the character from the long-running 2000 AD comics series, 1995's "Judge Dredd" saw Sylvester Stallone put on the iconic helmet — and then take it off. And then leave it off for most of the film (this was a sticking point for fans, as Dredd rarely — if ever — removes his helmet in the comics). Stallone did an okay job in the tight-lipped role, and the film has no shortage of the action and violence that typifies the source material. However, "Judge Dredd" lacks much of the biting political and social satire from the comics, resulting in a movie that is ultimately just another sci-fi action flick.

The tonal inconsistencies of the film were noted by Stallone years later in an interview with Ain't It Cool News, in which he said, "The philosophy of the film was not set in stone — by that, I mean, 'Is this going to be a serious drama or with comic overtones like other science fiction films that were successful? So a lotta pieces just didn't fit smoothly ... Some of the design work on it was fantastic ... but there was just no communication." There are plenty of other things wrong with "Judge Dredd" besides its tone, but let's give Stallone some credit for showing some introspection.

While 2005's "Fantastic Four" was no superhero masterpiece, it at least tried to recreate the freewheeling familial spirit of the beloved comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and featured just enough fidelity to the source material to attract fans and turn a profit. Of course, the film's modest box office success led to a sequel, 2007's "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," which failed to live up to its predecessor's creative standards, as low as they were. Both films continue to be the butt of jokes today. It was fun seeing the Silver Surfer on the big screen, but the humor was too campy, the plot too messy, and Galactus too cloudy.

"Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" is far from a fun watch, and it sounds like it was just as much fun to make, at least according to Jessica Alba who played Sue Storm. Alba recounted to Elle magazine (via Access) a story in which director Tim Story criticized her looks on set, saying, "I was dying in 'Silver Surfer.' The director was like, 'It looks too real. It looks too painful. Can you be prettier when you cry? Don't do that thing with your face. Just make it flat. We can CGI the tears in.'" The experience was so painful for Alba that she even considered quitting acting altogether.

Ben Affleck was an unusual choice to portray Marvel's "Man Without Fear," and much of the film's failure can be attributed to him. We're not saying that Affleck is a bad actor, but we are saying that he was badly miscast. His portrayal was so dark and brooding that it was almost as if he was practicing to play another nocturnal superhero (ahem). However, Affleck isn't the only problem with the 2003 film. The overuse of shoddy CGI, slow motion, and nu metal make "Daredevil" seem extremely dated.

However, maturity has been kind to Affleck who looks back on his experience in the film with little love. He took the role of the Caped Crusader in "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice" to prove that he could make a decent comic book movie (strike two!), stating in a TimeTalks interview (via NME) that he starred in "BvS" because he "wanted for once to get one of these movies and do it right — to do a good version. I hate Daredevil so much ... The Netflix show does really cool stuff. I feel like that was there for us to do with that character, and we never kind of got it right."

2003's "Daredevil" was an all-around disaster for many reasons, but Jennifer Garner's Elektra Natchios was one of the few characters that helped salvage it. Two years later, we got a spin-off that should have never been made: Rob Bowman's "Elektra," which was a critical and commercial failure, grossing a mere $57 million against a 65 million production budget. Mind you, Garner is not to blame for this abysmal failure, as she does her utmost with a lackluster, self-serious script that feels disjointed from the get-go. If anything, her spirited performance as the titular assassin-for-hire makes "Elektra" watchable, highlighting the severity of the disservice done to her character.

In a 2021 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Garner expressed her disappointment surrounding "Elektra," as she was a part of the franchise in a pre-Kevin Feige era and missed out on being a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. "It's such a shame, honestly, because once Kevin took over, everything there was elevated: the writing, the direction, the comedy inside of the stories they were telling. And I did not have that experience," Garner lamented.

Thankfully, Garner got the chance to reprise her role as Elektra in the recent "Deadpool & Wolverine," a Marvel Studios production with Feige involved as a producer. Although hers was one among many cameo appearances meant to evoke the meta, self-aware humor of the "Deadpool" films, Garner's return as Elektra feels well-earned. (Debopriyaa Dutta)

Marvel's First Family got a big screen reboot in 2015 with a darker, grittier tone that was a far cry from the more whimsical and colorful style that typified the comics and previous cinematic versions. The bar was set pretty low, considering Tim Story's films are hardly recognized as cinematic masterpieces, but this updated version managed to plumb deeper depths of mediocrity. Besides the dubious choice of putting one of Marvel's trippiest series through a dreary, charcoal filter, this dour take on the Fantastic Four reeks of studio interference that's evident in its sloppy pacing. It looks like it was edited with a chainsaw.

Kate Mara, who played Sue Storm, told The Times that she was put off by the intense fan backlash the film endured and still hadn't seen it. Somehow, she was still optimistic about the opportunity to continue the franchise, stating that she'd happily return "to play Sue Storm in a movie that everybody loves." Ouch.

Idris Elba brings his powerful presence and resonant voice to the role of Heimdall in many Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Monitoring who enters and exits Asgard, Heimdall is the primary protector of the Bifröst. When Asgard is destroyed, he joins Thor and the remaining Asgardians on their journey to Earth. However, their fleet is intercepted by Thanos and his forces, who are searching for the Infinity Stones. Heimdall is ultimately killed in the fight, but commits one last heroic act before he dies, sending Hulk to Earth to warn its heroes about Thanos. We get one more glimpse of Heimdall as he welcomes Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) to Valhalla at the end of "Thor: Love and Thunder."

While Elba brought a regal might to Heimdall, it seems like transitioning from serious acting to the more fantastical roles of the MCU was not fun. Elba told the Telegraph about his experience moving from playing Nelson Mandela in "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" to doing "Thor: The Dark World," saying, "I'm actually falling down from a spaceship ... And in between takes I was stuck there, fake hair stuck on to my head with glue, this ****ing helmet ... And I'm thinking: '24 hours ago, I was Mandela' ... Then there I was, in this stupid harness, with this wig and this sword and these contact lenses. It ripped my heart out."

Released in 2010, "Jonah Hex" has gone down in cinema history as one of the worst superhero movies ever made. It's a mystery, considering how many talented people worked on it, as its cast includes Josh Brolin (as the grizzled title character), John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, Michael Shannon, and Wes Bentley. Somehow, the result is a messy, confusing, and clichéd film that not even a strong cast could make watchable. I'm sure DC and Warner Brothers would like us all to forget the movie exists, but luckily, the film is so forgettable that it did the job itself.

While Brolin seemed to have a good time making "Jonah Hex," he has some regrets about the film. In a 2016 Nerdist podcast, Brolin stated that he "Hated it. The experience of making it — that would have been a better movie based on what we did. As opposed to what ended up happening to it, which is going back and reshooting 66 pages in 12 days..." Still, Brolin has managed to redeem himself in the eyes of comic book fans for his turns as Thanos and Cable.

When Tim Burton left the "Batman" franchise, Joel Schumacher took over as director and added more color and humor to the series. However, Schumacher went a little overboard with his gaudy approach to the Dark Knight and ended up taking the franchise back to the campy style of the 1960s TV series. There are many things wrong with Schumacher's "Batman" films, one of which was his casting of George Clooney in the title role. Clooney has done some great work, but there's no doubt that he was put to poor use as Batman.

Clooney would agree, as he's made his problems with "Batman & Robin" known over the years. One of the more recent instances of the actor looking back on his time in "Batman & Robin" with regret is in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. When asked which film had the biggest impact on his career, Clooney responded, "It's really easy to pick: 'Batman & Robin.' That's not a joke. Up until that moment, I was an actor only concerned with finding work. After the failure of that film creatively, I understood that I needed to take control of the films I made, not just the role."

To put it nicely, "Thor: The Dark World" is not exactly held in high regard by those who enjoy what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has to offer. For quite some time, director Alan Taylor's "The Dark World" represented a low bar for the MCU. It perhaps shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that it wasn't a particularly enjoyable experience for all involved. Christopher Eccleston, of "Doctor Who" fame, played the villain Malekith, and he had a particularly bad time making the blockbuster. "Not my greatest moment, it has to be said," Eccleston said to BBC Radio 2 (via Digital Spy) in 2017.

The actor felt that Marvel had been "dishonest," as he was completely unaware how much time he would be spending in the makeup chair each day. "The first couple of days it was about seven hours, eight hours," he said. "I think we got it down to six and a half. It's a day's work before [anything]." Eccleston's view of the experience did not soften with time. "Working on something like 'GI Joe' was horrendous. I just wanted to cut my throat every day. And 'Thor'? Just a gun in your mouth," Eccleston told The Guardian in 2018. "'Gone in 60 Seconds' was a good experience. Nic Cage is a gentleman and fantastic actor. But 'GI Joe' and 'Thor' were ... I really paid for being a w**** those times." (Ryan Scott)

It looks like Kate Mara wasn't the only one disappointed about being in the 2015 reboot of "Fantastic Four." Jamie Bell, who played Ben Grimm, isn't exactly proud of the final product. The actor told the Los Angeles Times that "there were several things on that movie I was clearly not privy to because I'm just an actor, and I just do my stuff on set ... A production begins with the idea to make something that's unique and original and with integrity. I think the film really strived towards those goals. I don't know what happened between the launch of the voyage and the arrival. I think we were all bitterly disappointed with that film."

Bell was an unusual choice to play the Thing, as the character is known for his gruff, blue-collar demeanor that doesn't seem like the obvious role for Bell. He's a fine actor, and he did the best he could with the material he was given, but there's no denying that he wasn't the best person to bring the rocky character to life. Considering how disappointing "Fantastic Four" is, Bell's Thing is the least of its problems.

"Catwoman" will go down in history as one of the most perplexing movies ever made — not in an intellectual Christopher Nolan sort of perplexing but in a "why in the hell did a major studio sign off on this atrocity" sort of perplexing. It's based on the classic Batman character, but "based" is a strong word to use to describe the film. Other than featuring a female character named Catwoman, the movie has almost nothing in common with the Selina Kyle that comic book fans know and love. "Catwoman" was a huge flop with audiences and critics and is generally regarded as one of the worst movies ever made.

Halle Berry, who plays the titular character, has a good sense of humor about it. She attended the 25th Golden Raspberry Awards to personally accept her award for worst actress. Even though it only lasted around eight minutes, it was an iconic moment that was even more entertaining than the 104-minute film itself. In Berry's speech, she declares that she wants to "thank Warner Brothers for putting me in a piece-of-sh*t, godawful movie. It was just what my career needed! I was at the top, and then 'Catwoman' just plummeted me to the bottom. Love it! It's hard being on top. It's much better being on the bottom."

In the superhero renaissance that was kicked off by "X-Men" in 2000, comic book movies flooded cinemas — some good and some bad. "Ghost Rider" was in the latter camp. It stars Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze, a renowned motorcycle stunt rider who turns into the fiery Ghost Rider due to a deal he makes earlier with the demon Mephistopheles. The dark subject matter of the film is tempered by its goofy humor, and Cage hams it up a little too much for audiences to take his character seriously.

However, the film — and its similarly bad 2012 sequel, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" — may have turned out better if it hadn't been slapped with a PG-13 rating and was allowed to embrace the darker side of the source material. At least, that's what Nicolas Cage believes, according to his interview with Yahoo! Entertainment in which he said, "Had 'Ghost Rider' been made in R-rated format, the way they had the guts to do with 'Deadpool,' and they did it again today, I'm fairly certain it would be enormously successful." While an R-rating alone may not have saved the film, it could've at least made it stand out from the glut of largely family-friendly superhero movies that was coming out at the time.

"Spawn" had all of the ingredients to become a major hit in 1997. It was based on the popular Image Comics series, it had a talented cast that included Michael Jai White (as the titular character), John Leguizamo, Martin Sheen, and Nicol Williamson, and was one of the first movies to be based on a prominent Black superhero, which broke down all kinds of boundaries. Yet, it's a disappointing superhero film that fails to bring the edgy darkness that characterized the comic books to the big screen and was undercut by a generic plot and crass humor. It's a diluted movie, especially for fans of the source material, and it has aged terribly — due in no small part to the incredibly dated CGI.

This is not a controversial opinion, as it is also shared by the lead actor Michael Jai White. He made his thoughts crystal clear to the Hollywood Reporter: "There is no footage of me ever saying that I liked 'Spawn.' I have never said that I thought that was a good movie." That's too bad for anyone who was hoping to blackmail White with footage of him saying that he loved the movie.

The original 1978 "Superman," directed by the great Richard Donner, was a truly seminal movie, and not only because it followed through on its promise to make audiences of the late '70s "believe a man can fly." The movie provided a blueprint for every superhero film that followed, and remains the best "Superman" movie ever made. As star Christopher Reeve's tenure in the lead role continued, however, the series lost much of what made that original so unimpeachably great, and by the time 1987's "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace" arrived, even Reeve himself knew he had made a bad movie. In fact, the actor knew the movie was bad while he was making it.

The plot involved Lex Luthor breaking out of prison and using radioactive material to clone Supes, creating a nemesis called Nuclear Man that was every bit as powerful as the Man of Steel. Unfortunately, that storyline and the fact the film endured an extremely troubled production that saw its budget slashed and resulted in test screenings that were so poorly received, director Sidney J. Furie was ordered to cut half an hour of footage from the film.

In Reeve's 1999 autobiography "Still Me," he made his feelings about the movie clear, writing "The less said about 'Superman IV,' the better." The late actor went on to lament the way the production was "hampered by budget constraints and cutbacks in all departments" and described a scene in which Superman lands on 42nd Street as being a poor imitation of what Donner would have done. "Richard Donner would have choreographed hundreds of pedestrians and vehicles and cut to people gawking out of office windows at the sight of Superman walking down the street like the Pied Piper," he wrote. "Instead, we had to shoot at an industrial park in England in the rain with about a hundred extras, not a car in sight, and a dozen pigeons thrown in for atmosphere." With that kind of approach, Reeve knew his last go-round in the cape was destined to be a stinker, and concluded that even if the awful storyline had been improved, the production team couldn't have ever "lived up to the audience's expectations with this approach." (Joe Roberts)

2015's "Fantastic Four" is one of the worst-reviewed superhero movies of the modern era, and it damn near killed director Josh Trank's career. There's a very good reason several actors from this movie appear on this list. Adding one more to the ranks, we arrive at Toby Kebbell, who played Victor von Doom in this ill-fated Marvel Comics adaptation. Kebbell has tried to be dignified when asked about the movie over the years, but the truth has come out a couple of different times.

In a November 2019 interview with MovieWeb, Kebbell was asked if he had any advice for the next actor who plays Doctor Doom. "Make sure Marvel are in control," the actor said candidly. In a 2023 interview with Comicbook.com, Kebbell got more honest after several more years of being asked about it. "I'd eat a whole croque en bouche of placenta puffs rather than be asked if I would go back and be terrible as Doctor Doom again," Kebbell said. "'Hey, you were terrible as Doctor Doom. Would you go back and do it again?' Eh, no." He may not have used the word regret, but Kebbell certainly isn't looking back fondly at his brief trip to the Marvel universe. (Ryan Scott)

Most critics hated the Sony superhero movie "Madame Web" (/Film's review was more positive than most!), but unfortunately for them, Dakota Johnson basically cornered the market on hating that movie. In a win for haters everywhere, Johnson handled the "Madame Web" press tour with about as much respect as she apparently thought the film deserved, which was very little. In an interview with Seth Meyers on "Late Night" ahead of the movie's release, Meyers asked if audiences needed to know about any "Spider-Man" lore or any other comic-book stuff to understand the movie; Johnson responded, "You don't have to know anything about anything at all to watch this movie." Johnson also told Entertainment Weekly that her experience filming in front of a blue screen for "Madame Web" wasn't to her liking: "I've never really done a movie where you are on a blue screen, and there's fake explosions going off, and someone's going, 'Explosion!' and you act like there's an explosion. That to me was absolutely psychotic. I was like, 'I don't know if this is going to be good at all! I hope that I did an okay job!'"

After the movie came out and was met with ridicule and derision, Johnson told Bustle that she wasn't surprised by the overwhelmingly negative reactions. "Unfortunately, I'm not surprised that this has gone down the way it has," she told the outlet, before saying she'd probably avoid the superhero genre going forward. After saying she's disappointed when movies are made based on "numbers and algorithms," Johnson said, "But it was definitely an experience for me to make that movie. I had never done anything like it before. I probably will never do anything like it again because I don't make sense in that world. And I know that now." It's safe to say that Johnson won't be appearing in any "Madame Web" sequels, and based on the critical and commercial failure of the first movie, one's not in the cards anyway. (Nina Starner)