‘Man of Steel’ Henry Cavill Wants To Steal Your Job! Can Franchises Successfully Switch Stars?

While we keep hitting refresh on Youtube, waiting for someone, anybody, to post shaky cell phone footage of the teaser trailer Warner Bros. dropped of Man of Steel at Comic-Con, there's at least the dark, moody poster of star Henry Cavill in the all-too familiar blue and reds to keep us occupied.

Cavill is only the third actor to portray the Son of Krypton in thirty-five years, thankfully taking over from human Ambien Brandon Routh. But replacing stars from one movie to the next in the same franchise is nothing new. Jeremy Renner seems to be making a name for himself as Hollywood's go-to replacement for aging action franchises. Strange, considering the 41-year old Hurt Locker star seems well beyond the appropriate age to be relied upon to reboot action franchises. Rumor was he was cast in last year's Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (notice they didn't just label it #4?) solely to act as a possible replacement to Tom Cruise in the series following a string of underperforming films for Cruise. And now he takes the reigns of the Jason Bourne franchise from Matt Damon as Aaron Cross, a contemporary and peer of Bourne who must inexplicably go on the run for some reason.

Is it possible to keep a franchise fresh and successful by replacing its star? Or does that reek of desperation and short-sightedness? While we wash the taste of Superman Returns out of our mouths, check out the gallery for some other movies that thought they were up to the challenge of pulling the old switcheroo on us.