If a movie or TV show is successful, producers will clamor and fumble to get a sequel or reboot in action. There have been a few instances where the stars of the show refused to hop back on for another round of filming due to keeping the integrity of the show alive. Oftentimes, an actor's experience was so bad that they vehemently refused to get back on the crew. Money could often be an issue, too, or the actor became bigger than the show that made them famous.
There are a lot of stories as to why some actors would never return to their roots!
Charlie Hunnam, Sons of Anarchy
Charlie Hunnam played a dark and scary character in the hit TV show Sons of Anarchy. Jax Teller was not an easy character to play for Hunnam, who has had a decorated acting career. Since the show ended in 2014, people have still been asking Hunnam about his role on the show.
"It was a very deep experience," he said. "I lived with that character inside me for years, like, in a very real way. In a way that manifested in ways that I could never even imagine." Even though Jax is dead in the show, Hunnam has been very adamant about never returning to the role no matter what. "Not even for Halloween."
Blake Lively, Gossip Girl
Blake Lively had the early 2000s in her clutches as Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl. Serena was not the nicest person in the world and would probably be called the villain of the series. Despite the success of this role, Lively felt that it was compromising her own personality and morals.
"People loved it, but it always felt a little personally compromising. You want to be putting a better message out there." She made the decision to not join in on the CW reboot in 2020 due to her changing morals and desire to be a better role model.
Zachary Quinto, Heroes
Zachary Quinto played supervillain Sylar in Heroes. After the show ended, he went on to participate in Star Trek and American Horror Story where he really made his name known. When Heroes was to be reprised as a movie in 2015, Quinto denied his return.
"No, I'm not going to go back. I talked to them about it, and Tim [Kring] reached out to me when they decided they were going to do it. We had a great conversation. It was such a meaningful experience for me. I loved that job, I loved those people," he told Buzzfeed in 2015. "I just felt like I didn't want to go back to it... Tim was very, very understanding." This was definitely the right move as Heroes Reborn was not a great success.
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the most iconic TV shows ever. Even though it was all the rage in the '90s, folks of this decade are still raving about it. In the age of repurposing old '90s shows, Sarah Michelle Gellar has no desire to be a part of the renaissance.
"My story with Buffy about representing horrors of adolescence has been told," she told Huffington Post in 2019. "I joke at this point that I'd have to have a walker and my walker would be made of wood and that would be how I stake people. I think at this point, I'm a little old!" In other words, she's fully moved on from her vampire slaying days.
David Boreanaz, Angel
Yet another Buffy cast member who isn't really a fan of rebooting the show. Boreanaz played Angel, Buffy's love interest. Angel's story went on to have a spin-off series called Angel, which only lengthened Boreanaz's time in the Buffy world. After the show was over, he knew his time was up.
"I'm all for people redoing it or whatever, but I'm too old. It's not like we're the cast of Friends reuniting. We're not hanging out in the coffee shop on a coach. But, you know, with all that technology, they made Robert De Niro look really young. I would encourage someone else to do it." Yeah, he's not a fan of returning to his role as an ageless vampire as, you know, an aged man.
Brent Spiner, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Data is everyone's favorite android... Except for Brent Spiner, apparently. Spiner has played Data for all seven seasons of the show and four TNG movies. He already has a great career outside of Star Trek but doesn't think that he can go back for another round. Data isn't supposed to age, after all.
"I mean, there was just a finite amount of time that I can actually play Data, no matter what anyone says. So many people were like, 'Oh, you can do it. You're not too old,' and then I do it and they go, 'You're too old. Why'd you do it?" he told TV Guide. "I think we did it in such brief sequences that it was fine to do it and I felt good about it. but I wouldn't really entertain the idea of doing it again because I just don't think it would be realistic."
Wentworth Miller, Prison Break
Wentworth Miller played Michael Scofield on the popular show Prison Break. The show garnered a cult following and maintained said following even after the show ended. Miller revived his role for a movie and show revival in 2017, but vowed one thing...
In 2013, Miller came out as gay. In November 2020, he took a public stance on never playing a straight character again. "I just don't want to play straight characters. Their stories have been told (and told). So. No more Michael. If you were a fan of the show, hoping for additional seasons... I understand this is disappointing. I'm sorry."
Sophie Turner, Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones is famously over, but that doesn't stop interviewers and fans from asking the actors about it. Sophie Turner played Sansa Stark, who had a major role throughout the entire series. That in itself is a feat since many of the main characters did not last to the end.
"I think my watch has ended. It's been 10 years of my life and the best 10 years of my life by far. I finished in a very happy place with Sansa and it's time to let her go," she told Sky News in 2019. "I feel like if I played her again it would be just more trauma." She did go on to say that the main reason she's happy for the show to end is that she no longer has to keep its secrets. That must have been so hard!
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves made waves with his performance in Speed. Unfortunately, he wasn't a fan of his own work and refused to be a part of Speed 2. He played Jack Traven, the main character who was tasked with keeping a city bus from going under 50 mph. Otherwise, it would explode.
It's interesting that he did not want to resign for the sequel considering his co-star, Sandra Bullock, did. Instead, Lost Boys star Jason Patric took over as the male lead. Speed 2 was a total flop, and Reeves saw it coming from a mile away.
Crispin Glover
This situation gets a little wonky. Crispin Glover did not want to return to his role in Back to the Future Part II. Instead of respecting his wishes and moving on, the producers went on and did something very sneaky that resulted in them getting sued.
Glover played George McFly, the main character Marty's father. Glover didn't want to return to the role because of moral issues that he had with the story. Instead of just recasting George, they hired someone as a "body double" and used molds that were taken from Glover's face for prosthetics to make a "mask" of Glover to use on the actor. He sued them for violating his rights and privacy and settled for $760k.
Will Ferrell
Elf was such a hit that fans demanded a sequel. A script for a sequel actually got written and Will Ferrell was offered $29 million to reprise the role, but he said no. He thought the plot was a cheap rehashing of the original film. “I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would’ve been, like, ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money.’ And I thought, ‘Can I actually say those words? I don’t think I can, so I guess I can’t do the movie,'” Ferrell told THR.
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando earned an Academy Award for his role of Don Vito Corleone in the 1972 film The Godfather. Don Vito dies from a heart attack in the first film, but the second film was supposed to feature "new" flashbacks. Brando signed on to do the flashbacks but he never showed up for filming. Instead, they hired Robert De Niro to fill the part and the rest is history.
Linda Hamilton
Linda Hamilton was a staple in the first two Terminator movies. Unfortunately, she couldn't bring herself to be on board with the third movie's script so she turned down the role. The writers killed her off during the timeline between T2 and T3.
Will Smith
Independence Day is probably one of Will Smith's best films. Even with that being said, the actor did not return for Independence Day: Resurgence in 2016. This was actually due to scheduling conflicts. "It was one of those things," he said. "I had a couple of films lined up, I had Concussion and Suicide Squad, and so it was a decision, timing-wise, between Independence Day and Suicide Squad." His character, albeit the main one, was killed off-screen.
Natalie Portman
Natalie Portman played Jane Foster in the first two Thor movies. The first was directed by Patty Jenkins and the second, Dark World, was directed by Alan Taylor. Portman and Taylor butted heads so much that Portman never returned to set for re-shoots after filming wrapped. Naturally, she declined to be a part of a third film.
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss played Matt Hooper in Jaws. Dreyfuss and Spielberg nurtured a good relationship thanks to this film and even teamed up for Close Encounters of the Third Kind a couple of years later. The Jaws sequel was set in motion but Spielberg was not interested in taking part. Dreyfuss backed out as well, stating, "I knew what made Jaws good, and we weren't talking about Steven directing."
Megan Fox
It's well-known that Megan Fox (and many other actresses) hates Michael Bay as a director. She got booted from the third Transformers movie after comparing Michael Bay to a deadly dictator. Her character was written out of the movie.
Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall did not return to the The Godfather series due to pay issues. He was quoted saying, "If they paid Pacino twice what they paid me, that's fine, but not three or four times, which is what they did." In response, they simply killed off his character ii between films.
Sean Connery
Sean Connery played Indiana Jones' Father in the 1989 action flick Indiana Cones and the Last Crusade. Connery didn't return to the role due to bad blood or a bad script; he had simply retired from acting in 2003. Steve Spielberg tried to get him back into the game, but it was no use. Connery said, "It was not that generous a part worth getting back into the harness and go for."
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jamie Lee Curtis is the daughter of the original scream queen Janet Leigh, so it only made sense that her acting debut was in a horror franchise. We all know that there are tons of Halloween movies, and Curtis really only had two in her. She simply wasn't interested in filming a third Halloween film (the fourth in the franchise) because she had other things going on. She did, however, come back for Halloween H20, Halloween: Resurrection, and 2018's Halloween.
Jim Carrey
Bruce Almighty was an instant hit and producers were eager to do a sequel. Carrey immediately turned down the role, which forced producers to create Evan Almighty, which is a classic in its own right. Carrey basically said that he turned it down because he doesn't like sequels. "I find sequels are a function of commerce for the most part. At least the two I've done, they were characters I enjoyed doing, but I did find myself parroting myself at that point."
Arnold Schwarzenegger
When Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked to appear in the Predator sequels, he turned them down. Rumors said that there was a salary dispute, but the truth came out in 2018. He simply didn't like the script. “They asked me, and I read it, and I didn't like it – whatever they offered,” Arnold told Yahoo!
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks was super against doing a sequel for Forrest Gump. He said that he personally didn't see the movie as the franchise that the studio wanted it to be. “I’ll be saying ‘box of chocolates’ again about the same time that Sean Connery says, ‘I’m Bond. James Bond.” I have to confess I don’t see this as a franchise. A sequel would ruin what we had done. It would be like ‘Jaws 2,’” Tom told EW.
Bill Murray
Bill Murray was okay with doing a second Ghostbusters movie, but definitely not a third. Director Ivan Reitman said it was hard to get Murray to do a second film, so he wasn't surprised that the third one was a no-go. Dan Aykroyd didn't blame him. “I never begrudged him not being in the third movie, though I wrote a nice part for him in ‘Hellbent,’ where the ‘Ghostbusters’ go to hell. He’s got very high standards and a high bulls**t detector,” he told EW.
Katie Holmes
Katie Holmes was a fantastic Rachel Dawes, but she decided to not reprise the role for Batman Begins. Instead, she opted to work on Mad Money. “I had a great experience working with Chris Nolan," she said at the time. "I'm sure it's going to be a great movie. [But] I chose to do this movie [Mad Money], and I'm really proud of it.”
Kristen Wiig
After the success of Bridesmaids, a second film was pitched to the cast. Kristen Wiig turned it down immediately. "It wasn't a hard decision. We knew during the first one, this was it. We would have made a lot of money if there was a second one, but that's not my goal in my creative life,” Kristen told Harper’s Bazaar.
Richard S. Castellano
Another Godfather cast member chose not to return to the franchise. Castellano refused to reprise his role of Clemenza because he didn't like how the writers portrayed his story. Clemenza became a rat, but Castellano said that Clemenza was "a teacher" not "a betrayer."
Jennette McCurdy
Jenette McCurdy famously played Sam in iCarly. She also famously did not take part in the iCarly reboot for Paramount+ in 2021. She later revealed in her podcast that she retired from acting because she suffered intense emotional and physical abuse from her mother who wanted her to become a famous child actor. She also suffered abuse from Dan Schneider, creator of the show. It was all too much for her to go back.
Mo'Nique
Talks of rebooting The Parkers were rampant in 2021, but Mo'Nique immediately shot that down. She said that the death of Yvette Wilson would make it impossible to reboot the sitcom. "But that's the way I feel about it. I wouldn't feel good about it if Andell wasn't walking through the door. And for me, that was just a special moment in time."
Tina Fey
Don't even think about trying to make a Mean Girls sequel. Tina Fey has already turned it down! There is technically a Mean Girls 2 out in the world, but Fey had nothing to do with it so we will not honor it. Mean Girls is the type of movie that is so good it doesn't need a sequel.
George Clooney
The cast of ER got together for a virtual panel in 2021 where talks of a reboot became the topic of conversation. Clooney said that it wouldn't be right. "When you look at the show, over so many years, it would be hard to say you could do it at the level that we did it. It's hard to catch lightning in a bottle again.
Cole Sprouse
Cole and Dylan Sprouse were the stars of Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. In 2020, Cole went on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to discuss a possible reboot. What he said in response was perfect: "There's always the, 'Oh, when are you going to go back?' But I don't think it should be done... I think it's really incendiary; there's a huge potential too, kind of, demolish that perfect little golden memory of a program if you go back and revive it... I'm not the biggest fan of the sequel and the spinoff thing. I think also if the time elapses, everyone who comes back to a program like that, they're not really in the same headspace."
Adam Brody
Adam Brody played Seth Cohen on The O.C. One would assume that he would have an invite back to the reboot, but he doesn't even think that it should happen. He said that he doesn't think it's a show worth rebooting due to its lack of social consciousness. That's fair!
Kim Cattrall
Sex in the City did actually reboot but without one of the founding members. Kim Cattrall decided to not return to her role of Samantha Jones. This isn't surprising, though, because she reportedly pulled out from the third movie days before it was to start filming.
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
The twins played Michelle Tanner in the classic TV show Full House. The show was rebooted on Netflix as Fuller House, but without the stars of the show. Neither of them has been in the acting world since they were teenagers. Mary-Kate was allegedly somewhat open to the idea, but the timing was bad. Ashley fully did not want to come back. John Stamos said, "I remember trying to get them on Fuller House and they didn't want to come in or there was some miscommunication, or whatever it was... It was blown out of proportion."
Steve Carell
Steve Carell famously left The Office long before the series finale. He played Michael Scott for seven seasons. About a reboot, Carell said, "It's really flattering that it's somehow caught people's attention, so many years later. But, I don't think you can recapture that same magic. I really think it comes down to that."
John Cusack
John Cusack played Adam Yates in Hot Tub Time Machine. The sequel film was a total flop and lost money, so it was probably a good thing that Cusack didn't re-sign for his acting and producing roles. The budget was chopped in half!
Connie Britton
Connie Britton isn't a fan of reviving Friday Night Lights. "I heard inklings a few years ago that they were gonna make another Friday Night Lights. Now meanwhile, we know we've already had a movie, we already had this TV show, and then if they were to do it again with a whole different iteration of it, I don't think I think it would be sort of odd."
Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster played Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. She chose to sit out in the 2001 sequel Hannibal. She said that the formal reason was she was busy filming another movie, but she admitted that she wouldn't have wanted to bring Clarice into another film without director Jonathan Demme. "I saw Hannibal. I won't comment."
Simon Cowell
American Idol has had plenty of judges in its history, but Simon Cowell made it what it is today. The original trio of Simon, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson have retired from the show. In 2018, rumors of them returning were in the works but Cowell shut them down. He said that he would never return to the show even if they begged him.
Tori Spelling
Beverly Hills, 90210 was rebooted and Shannen Doherty and Jennie Garth quickly signed up, ut Tori Spelling said no way. She originally agreed but then turned down the role due to "personal issues." Then, money issues and salary negotiations got involved which only hardened her stance on not returning.
William Fichtner
Prison Break got its revival but without key members. William Fichtner, who played Alexander Mahone, did not join the cast. It wasn't due to bad blood, though. He had his plate full with Mom.
Wayne Wilcox
Gilmore Girls got its reboot as Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life. Wayne Wilcox was one of the few characters who didn't return for his role. The producers said that they tried to get him back but it didn't "organically happen."
Kiefer Sutherland
Kiefer Sutherland was the face of 24, but somehow the reboot went on without him. 24: Legacy was an obvious fail from the start since he wasn't involved. Needless to say, the 2016 reboot didn't go over well.
Victoria Principal
Dallas was a very popular drama show in the '80s. Fans were excited about the 2012 reboot at first but were put off by the "new generation" aspect. Some of the original cast returned for guest appearances, but Victoria Principal wanted nothing to do with it. She said that "likening my character's original storyline to Shakespeare saying the best tragic works are left untouched."
Chad Michael Murray
Chad Michael Murray was also not a fan of coming back for Gilmore Girls: A Year In The Life. Murray said, "I heard that it was happening and I wasn't available at the time. I'm pretty positive I was having a baby. My first child." Instead, they recast his character with Anton Narinskiy.
Hayden Panettiere
Heroes was an extremely popular show with a lot of fanfare to boot. The show was rebooted in 2015 for the fans, but many original cast members couldn't come back. She was given the option to come back, but she did not take it.
Sammi Sweetheart
Sammi Sweetheart was part of the original cast of The Jersey Shore. The early 2010s show was rebooted in the latter half of the decade but without the Sweetheart of the cast. She had bad blood with cast member Ronnie and wasn't about the party lifestyle anymore. It was for the better! She did go back for Reunion Road Trip: Return to the Jersey Shore but Ronnie was not involved. Sam over Ron, always.
Lara Flynn Boyle
Lara Flynn Boyle played Donna Hayward in Twin Peaks. She was recast in the prequel film, Fire Walk with Me. Sadly, she didn't return for the reboot of the show. Heather Graham and Piper Laurie joined Boyle in not rejoining the cast.
Paula Abdul
Paula Abdul has said that she's totally thrilled that American Idol is getting a reboot, but she's not interested in returning. She just doesn't want to judge anymore. It was a huge part of her life for so long, after all, it probably gets tiring.