I was watching Back to the Future tonight and remembered that the girl that played Marty's gf in the original was not the same as in the sequels. Same for the father. How many times has this happened in movies and does it bother you?

I can think of another instance being in Star Trek with Lt. Saavik.

This bugs me SO much. I know it shouldn't, but I can't help it. Switching actors is right up there with "555" numbers as far as ripping me back to reality and declaring "hey audience, you're watching a movie!"

The worst case, I feel, is the recasting of Clarice in Hannibal. As much as I like Juilianne Moore, she's just not the same character that Jodie Foster played.

Rusty and Audrey in the Vacation series.

No, the worst case is replacing Paul Newman and Robert Redford from The Sting with Jackie Gleason and Mac Davis (!!!!!) in The Sting II. Top that. Anybody.

Bond, James Bond.

In Resident Evil 2, the guy under the Nemesis suit is NOT Eric Mabius, who played "Matt" in part !!! The injustice!!

Yeah, just kidding, that's not a big deal.

It is always a bit distracting in other movies when it happens though...

Oh, Tommy Jarvis in Friday the 13th part 4, 5, and 6 is played by a different actor each time.

it does get annoying if it's one of the more main characters.

edit: i was watching E! this morning with their true hollywood story about sandra bullock and she mentioned that she thought speed 2 flopped mainly because keanu reeves wasn't in it.

Jack Ryan was played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck.
Harvey Dent was played by Billy Dee Williams and Tommy Lee Jones.

Jack Crawford - Dennis Farina (Manhunter) - Scott Glenn (TSOTL) - Harvey Keitel (Red Dragon)

And of course the most famous one :

Vito Corleone - Marlon Brando & Robert DeNiro

i don't think that is a famous one at all as the 2 movies they were in as Vito were set in two different time periods.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showthread.php?t=391165

Batman
Michael Keaton -> Val Klimer -> George Clooney = Batman
[Christian Bale is isn't included because Batman Begins is not a sequel to any of the other films]

Superman
Christopher Reeve -> Brandon Routh = Superman
[Superman Returns is a sequel to Superman II and acts like III & IV never happened]

The Prince & Me and Save The Last Dance
Julia Stiles -> Izabella Miko = Sara Johnson
Julia Stiles ->Kam Heskin = Paige Morgan
[Stiles must have known these direct to vid sequels weren't going to be so hot.]

Pocahontas (Walt Disney)
Mel Gibson -> Donal Gibson = John Smith
[Disney got smart and casted Mel's bro to replace him in the sequel so the voice is somewhat similar.]

Aladdin (Walt Disney)
Robin Williams -> Dan Castellaneta -> Robin Williams -> Dan Castellaneta = Genie
[Disney made Willaims mad before the second sequel so he refused to participate. After a long making up session, Willaims returns for the third film. For the TV show sequel, Disney went back to Castellaneta.]

I remember as a kid being really peeved that the actors in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation were not the same from the original film. The sequel took place seconds after the first film ended, and they even used flashbacks with the original actors! Argh!

John Clark - Willem Dafoe, Liev Schreiber

It wasn't the same character. Similar type of character though.

Just about everybody but Schwarzenegger (both in front of and behind the camera) in TERMINATOR 3, one of the reasons why I never intend to watch it (the other being that this series was Cameron's baby and he tied it all up quite nicely at the end of T2; Part 3 exists solely to milk the audience and I ain't squirtin').

There was never a superman 3 or 4. ;-)

Hannibal Lector - Brian Cox and Anthony Hopkins

Blofeld, Ernst Stavro Blofeld

Jack Ryan: Alec Baldwin > Harrison Ford > Ben Affleck

But Keanu and Jason Patric were not playing the same character and it was acknowledged in the movie.

Robert E. Lee - Martin Sheen, Robert Duval

Yeah, that bugged me bigtime. I didn't mind so much in On Her Majesty's Secret Service since I prefered Savalas' interpretation of the character. Plus aside from missing the scar, he was still bald with a hook nose.

But Charles Gray looked nothing like Pleasance or Savalas(he had hair for chrissakes!), he had an effete English accent, and the actor had already played Bond's ally in a previous film.

Yeah but "The Silence of the Lambs" was never intended to be a cinematic followup to "Manhunter". They certainly downplayed the connection (IE: they didn't want to associate their high-profile movie with an obscure flop) and there's no evidence they ever even considered recasting Brian Cox. As it stands "Manhunter" and "The Silence of the Lambs" are no more "related" than, say, any two random Sherlock Holmes adaptations. The books upon which they are based are related but as cinematic entities they are not.

When Blofeld went underground, he went deep underground. He got plastic surgery and taught himself to act differently. Why do you think no one could figure out where he'd gone to, until Bond stumbled upon another of his operations?

But the Bond movies are a series. If you want to call them sequels, then the Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan movies count too.