TV actors who were recast within the first season

On The CW's genre-bending teen drama based on the classic characters from "Archie Comics," actor Ross Butler played the character Reggie Mantle, Archie's nemesis at Riverdale High. However, Butler left at the end of the first season reportedly due to scheduling conflicts, and Charles Melton has been in the role ever since.

According to series creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: "We love what Ross did with the role of Reggie [this season], but because of his commitments to other projects, we couldn't use him nearly as much as we would have liked." Butler did make a surprise return appearance as the original Reggie for a few scenes in Season 6, joining other characters who returned for the show's 100th episode.

Before Emilia Clarke became the dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen, that role was given to Tamzin Merchant, who was cut after filming the infamously troubled—and subsequently shelved—original pilot episode of "Game of Thrones."

About changing the actors, HBO executive Michael Lombardo said: "There was a piece of casting we had to rethink, [a role] that was compromised. We all knew Daenerys' journey was critical. Her scenes with Jason just didn't work."

Merchant ultimately agreed the role was not for her, saying: "[Getting cut] was an affirmation about listening to my instincts and following them, because I tried to back out of that situation and, during the contract process, I did back out. I was talked back into it by some persuasive people."

In the ultimately unaired pilot for the long-running FX sitcom "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," the key character Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds, Dennis' twin sister, was not played by the familiar face of Kaitlin Olson. Lead actors and writers Glenn Howerton, Rob McElhenney, and Charlie Day filmed a pilot that got the show greenlit by FX, and Dee was played by McElhenney's then-girlfriend, Jordan Reid. According to Reid herself, however, due to some behind-the-scenes drama and Reid and McElhenney splitting, Reid was released from her role, which was later recast.

The first season of Showtime's U.S. adaptation of the British series "Shameless" saw Jane Levy in the role of troubled teen Mandy Milkovich, who befriends and attempts to seduce the closeted Ian Gallagher. After Season 1, fans may have felt a little bewildered to suddenly see Emma Greenwell in Levy's spot, but Levy opted for a role she was much more eager to land: the starring role on ABC's "Suburgatory."

In an interview for Backstage, Levy said of the decision to take a chance on "Suburgatory": "I try not to get attached to stuff; I try to move on. But this was the first one I went out for and it was exciting. ... When I found out it was actually going to happen, I went crazy."

ABC Family's twisty adaptation of the popular book series made a few key changes after filming the pilot episode, including recasting the crucial role of Toby Cavanaugh, stepbrother of the villainous Jenna Marshall.

Actor James Neate actually played Toby's role in the aired pilot episode. However, after that pilot, Keegan Allen took over as Toby. It remains unknown why the swap was made, but this wasn't the only role that was recast after "Pretty Little Liars" Season 1: The role of Allison's brother, Jason, was also recast.

It's hard to forget the character of Jerry's father, Morty Seinfeld, played memorably throughout the eponymous series by Barney Martin. But in a Season 1 episode titled "The Stake Out," which features an appearance from Jerry's parents, Phil Bruns can be seen playing the role.

Basically, according to director Tom Cherones in the behind-the-scenes special features on the DVDs for Seasons 1 and 2, "Seinfeld" showrunners Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld decided they wanted the character of Jerry's father to be more abrasive, implying that Bruns didn't portray the desired character vibe.

Ann Veal's character was meant to be a forgettable girl on "Arrested Development," so maybe watchers didn't notice her original actor, Alessandra Torresani, was replaced by Mae Whitman after Season 1. But the initial reason she was recast actually played into the joke around her character of being utterly bland: She was supposed to get cast as a different actor over and over.

As revealed by Whitman in an interview, however, the showrunners ended up sticking with her, jokingly revealing: "They were like, 'No, no, you're making the whole 'not memorable' thing work; we'll just go with that.'"

It feels like there's no way any fan of the NBC sitcom "30 Rock" can imagine Jenna Maroney played by anyone else but Jane Krakowski. Still, former SNL star and comedian Rachel Dratch actually held the role during an unaired pilot.

Liz Lemon's best friend and star of the fictional "Girlie Show" was named "Jenna DeCarlo" in the unaired pilot, but a shift in tone prompted a swap for Krakowski. On the switch, Dratch told the New York Post, "The direction of the character had changed, and pilots are recast all the time."

Daenerys Targaryen wasn't the only major "Game of Thrones" character to get a shake-up after filming the unaired pilot. Before the series was picked up, the original actor playing Catelyn Stark, Jennifer Ehle, decided to back out.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Ehle explained that she had found out the series had been picked up after six months of continuous work, clarifying: "My daughter was seven months old when we did the pilot. It was too soon for me to be working, emotionally and bonding-wise."

Alyson Hannigan's portrayal of Willow Rosenberg on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has become iconic, but that role almost turned out very differently. As with many other TV series, "Buffy" had an unaired pilot—and in that pilot, Willow's character was portrayed by actor Riff Regan.

In an interview on the show's DVD special features, casting director Marcia Shulman said Regan "just didn't work" in the role, going on to explain that "when we got picked up, we always felt that we were going to start again and look for another Willow."

It's hard to fathom anyone but Melissa McCarthy in the role of Sookie St. James—yet in the unaired, original "Gilmore Girls" pilot, Sookie was actually played by "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" and "Family Guy" actor Alex Borstein. However, at the time, Borstein was still a cast member on the late-night sketch comedy show "MADtv," and they wouldn't let her out of her contract to join "Gilmore Girls." "I wanted to do both," Borstein told BuzzFeed in a 2013 interview. "They wouldn't share me."

Everyone knows Lisa Kudrow as the eccentric Phoebe Buffay on "Friends," but there was a brief period when she was Roz Doyle, producer of Frasier Crane's radio program on "Frasier." Kudrow had snagged the part, but three days into filming the pilot, things weren't shaking out: "I wasn't right for the part [or] for the chemistry of the group. So that wasn't working," Kudrow explained on "The Howard Stern Show" in 2021.

Kudrow also felt she wasn't director James Burrows' "cup of tea," which ultimately caused a few road bumps when she got cast on "Friends"—another Burrows project.

"Frasier" co-creator Peter Casey also explained the situation on writer Ken Levine's blog, citing that Kudrow wasn't forceful or assertive enough for the dynamic with the titular character. Casey said they were rewriting the character of Roz less strong each day for Kudrow, and after realizing the change needed to be made, they called Kudrow with "great regret" and informed her they were recasting her.

Now recognized for her dramatic work in acclaimed films like "Titanic" and "Unforgiven," actor Frances Fisher was originally cast in the part of Tim Taylor's wife, Jill, on "Home Improvement." Jumping off from her soap opera work at the time, Fisher still had very little comedy experience, and shortly after taping began for the pilot, she was swapped out for Patricia Richardson. "Frances is a great actress," "Home Improvement" co-star Richard Karn told News.com, "but in this role with Tim [Allen], she came off more as a victim to him than his equal."

When the long-running medical drama "Grey's Anatomy" aired its backdoor pilot episode for the upcoming spinoff "Private Practice" in 2007, the new character of Dr. Naomi Bennett, played by Merrin Dungey, was introduced. However, shortly after the episode aired, it was announced Bennett's role would be taken over by Audra McDonald in the full season set to premiere in the fall. Why the switch? Well, according to Variety, it simply had to do with chemistry issues between Dungey and the actor who played her character's estranged husband, Sam: Taye Diggs.

Fans of the popular sitcom "My Wife and Kids," starring Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell, were first introduced to Jazz Raycole's Claire Kyle—Michael's stubborn teenage daughter—throughout Season 1. But by Season 2, viewers may have been surprised to see Jennifer Freeman suddenly in the role of Claire.

Speaking to the Christian Post in 2012, Raycole explained that, as she was only 12 when she was cast, it was just a matter of producers wanting someone older for the part. However, in the book "The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable Shows," it is further revealed that the recast came after Raycole's mother took issue with a storyline where one of Claire's teenage friends became pregnant.

In the series adaptation of "Parenthood"—based on the 1989 movie of the same name—Maura Tierney was cast in the role of Sarah Braverman, one of the show's central characters. However, after appearing in the unaired pilot, the series premiere was pushed to accommodate Tierney's breast cancer treatments. Ultimately, the treatments would take longer than hoped, forcing Tierney to drop out of the role Lauren Graham took over for the show's midseason premiere. Concerning the recast, an NBC spokesperson stated: "While we are saddened that Maura Tierney won't be able to continue in her current role in 'Parenthood,' our main concern is for her quick and full recovery."

Fans of the popular supernatural series "Charmed" recognize the character of Phoebe Halliwell as played by Alyssa Milano, but in the first pilot, Phoebe was played by "Dawson's Creek" actor Lori Rom. As revealed in an interview with series creator Constance M. Burge for InTouch Weekly in 2018, Rom allegedly left the show for "personal reasons," as Burge understood it—though she did not elaborate further. "She was accommodated and after that we just got so fortunate with Alyssa," Burge explained. "It was horrid and sad for her to go, but we were fortunate that it all worked out with Alyssa."

Many may recognize Australian actor Miranda Otto for her roles in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" film series and Netflix's "The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina." But for a brief moment, Otto was a character on HBO's "Westworld" before being recast while filming the pilot. Cast as Virginia Pittman, "the head of [Westworld's] Quality Assurance department," Otto was quietly replaced as "producers re-conceived the role." Otto was replaced by Danish actor Sidse Babett Knudsen, and the character was renamed "Theresa Cullen."

After landing the role of Upper East Sider Blair Waldorf's mom on The CW's "Gossip Girl" and appearing in the aired pilot, viewers may have been surprised at the time to no longer see Florencia Lozano in Eleanor Waldorf's role. By the fourth episode—and throughout the rest of the series—Blair's mom was played by Margaret Colin.

So why the switch? Well, there's no official report from the actors or anyone behind the series about why Eleanor was changed—though a TikTok user eventually called out this "major plot hole" in 2020. However, at the time, Lozano was only 16 years older than Leighton Meester, the actor who portrayed Blair, so it's possible producers wanted someone a bit older for the part.

Viral model and actor Ruby Rose took up the mantle as Batwoman for the eponymous CW show based on Bruce Wayne's vigilante cousin, but by the end of the first season, she had announced her departure. For a while, the reasoning behind her exit remained unclear, but then sources alleged she couldn't acclimate to the long filming hours in Vancouver: "It was a breakup," one source claimed to TV Line. Subsequently, Rose told Entertainment Weekly both an injury she sustained in 2019 and the coronavirus pandemic played a role in her decision to leave. For Seasons 2 through 3 (the final season), Batwoman was played by Javicia Leslie.

"The Fault in Our Stars" actor Shailene Woodley had a recurring role on Season 1 of "The O.C." as Kaitlin Cooper, little sister to Mischa Barton's Marissa Cooper. However, Woodley was nowhere to be found in Season 2, with Kaitlin's character not returning until Season 3, where she was played by Willa Holland. Though Woodley took to Twitter in 2020 to call being on "The O.C." "one of [her] proudest accomplishments," she revealed in a Wired interview that she was a "late bloomer" and that the producers of the show wanted a "girl who had a body."

For the entire six-year run of "True Blood," Rutina Wesley played Tara Thornton, the childhood friend of series protagonist Sookie Stackhouse. However, over a decade ago, the unaired pilot for "True Blood" leaked online, showcasing Tara's never-before-seen original actor: Brook Kerr.

No official reason has been given as to why the switch was made for this character. However, some have speculated the eventual creative trouble with both Tara's character and the show could have been sensed from Kerr while filming her pilot—but it also could have simply been the producers wanting to take the character in a different direction.

Sherri Shepherd is hilarious and unforgettable on "30 Rock" as Tracy Jordan's domineering wife, Angie, and it's difficult to conceive of someone else who'd be so perfect in the role. But eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that in Angie's first appearance on the show, on the Season 1 episode "Jack the Writer," Angie was played by a different actor: Sharon Wilkins. Wilkins appeared in only one episode as Angie before Shepherd took over for the rest of the series. An official statement has never been released for why Wilkins got the boot. Still, it's undeniable that Wilkins isn't very memorable in her one-episode spot, after which Shepherd goes on to wholly immortalize the role.

On "Gilmore Girls," Jared Padalecki played the part of Rory Gilmore's first boyfriend, Dean Forester. Now arguably most famous for his co-starring role on "Supernatural," Padalecki snagged the recurring part in the popular dramedy when Dean's original actor, Nathan Wetherington, was recast after filming the original pilot (the same pilot that featured Alex Borstein as Sookie St. James).

According to Wetherington, the scene where he meets Rory took 45 takes to get right, and ultimately, he said his experience filming was unpleasant. So it likely wasn't surprising when he found out he was being replaced.

The iconic role of Captain Kirk on the original "Star Trek" is a role utterly exalted in the annals of pop culture by actor William Shatner. Well, would you believe that Shatner wasn't even the first actor to get the part? That original actor was a man named Jeffrey Hunter, who played Captain Christopher Pike during the show's official pilot before Shatner replaced him, and the role was rewritten as "Captain James T. Kirk" for the first episode.

As divulged in Shatner's 1993 memoir "Star Trek Memories," the public story was that Hunter quit to make a movie. Still, Shatner claimed he was "canned after his ex-model wife repeatedly burst onto the set to demand that her husband get more flattering camera angles."

Talk about behind-the-scenes drama.

Story editing by Jeff Smith. Copy editing by Andrew Mangan.