3. Albus Dumbledore – Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts Franchises
Adapting books to film isn’t always easy, but the Harry Potter movies got it right. For the first two films, Richard Harris played Hogwarts headmaster and all-round wizard stereotype Albus Dumbledore. After Harris passed, however, the role was recast, with Michael Gambon taking over what we’ll affectionately call “Dumbledore duty”.
With the new actor came a new personality. Gone was Harris’s quiet, mysterious charm, replaced by Gambon’s slightly darker and more erratic version of the character. However, the strangest part is that he changed again: for Gambon’s second film, The Goblet of Fire, he dialled back the kookiness to be more in line with the Dumbledore from the books.
The personality shifts weren’t over, though. For the prequel/spin-off franchise Fantastic Beasts, Jude Law was brought in to perform his own “Dumbledore duty”, and the character was vastly different yet again. This younger Dumbledore is more careful, less self-assured, and dresses far less wizard-y. You can only put so much change down to the aging process, leaving us to conclude that Dumbledore just switches personalities (and faces) as often as he does his robes.