1. In 2022, Chris Evans told MTV News that he would "love" to reprise his role as Johnny Storm, of Fantastic Four and bursting into flames fame, and that it would be "an easier sell to me than coming back as Cap."
Evans, who originally played Johnny in 2005's Fantastic Four, said, "No, no one's ever come to me about that. I mean, I don't exactly look the same anymore, that was 15, almost 20 years ago — oh my God, I'm old — but I really loved that character."
"I would love it. That would actually be an easier sell to me than coming back as Cap, you know what I mean? Cap is so precious to me and, you know, I almost don't want to disrupt what a beautiful experience that was," he added. "But Johnny Storm, I feel like he didn't really get his day. That was before Marvel really found its footing. So I, you know, I loved that role, and who knows?"
2. In a 2021 interview with Digital Spy, Dave Bautista said that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is "probably going to be the end of Drax," the lovably blunt alien he's played since 2014.
He mentioned that director James Gunn had pitched him a Drax and Mantis spin-off film, but that while the idea was "brilliant," he hadn't "heard any follow-up from the studio."
And in an interview with JoBlo, Bautista said, "Honestly, if they [Marvel] offered me a series, I wouldn’t do it. Not a chance in hell would I do a TV series playing Drax. That is a make-up nightmare. I would be miserable. Yeah, that make-up isn’t fun. It’s awful, so I’m not gonna sign up to do a series where I’m in that make-up every day."
3. Kit Harington is apparently more than willing to make a return trip to Westeros, as he is attached to play the bastard-turned-reluctant-hero-turned-even-more-reluctant-hero Jon Snow in a Game of Thrones spin-off series currently in development at HBO.
The spin-off would reportedly focus on Jon and his continued trials and tribulations, which considering his luck, probably got even worse following the events of Season 8. Though at least we know for sure that he reunited with Ghost.
4. Despite recent rumors that he was in talks about returning to Bridgerton as the Duke of Hastings in Season 3, Regé-Jean Page wrote in the caption of an Instagram post of him and former co-star Jonathan Bailey, "No, I’m not going back to the show btw — the papers made that one up."
Back when his decision to leave the show was announced in 2021, Page told Variety, "It’s a one season arc. It’s going to have a beginning, middle, end — give us a year. ... I get to come in, I get to contribute my bit and then the Bridgerton family rolls on." He added that since romance fans expect that the "arc completes" with marriage and children, and the Duke and Daphne met that standard, it made sense to hang up his top hat for good.
5. In an interview with Insider, David Harbour said that when it comes to his buffoonish Black Widow character the Red Guardian, he's "down for more."
He suggested two different story ideas for the Soviet Union's answer to Captain America. In one, audiences would see him "back in his prime." And in the other, the Red Guardian would seek "vengeance" against Hawkeye after misunderstanding the nature of Black Widow's death, and believing that Hawkeye murdered her, rather than attempted (and failed) to prevent her from sacrificing herself.
6. Sarah Michelle Gellar confirmed in a 2021 appearance on the podcast On with Mario Lopez that she would not be packing up her stake and reprising her role as Buffy Summers, vampire slayer extraordinaire, anytime soon.
Gellar said that she's a "wee bit...long in the tooth" to play the teenager, and that since the show was "a metaphor for the horrors of adolescence," she didn't believe she "should be the one doing it.”
Gellar previously discussed the possibility of a Buffy the Vampire Slayer reboot in a 2019 interview with BuzzFeed News' AM to DM podcast. She said that while it wasn't possible for her to play Buffy since she isn't "an adolescent anymore," she's "all for them rebooting it."
7. In response to a question from Esquire about whether she would be willing to reprise her role as Antonia Dreykov, aka Taskmaster, following the character's introduction in Black Widow, Olga Kurylenko responded, "Imagine I'd say, 'No, I wouldn't.' Would that be weird? Would you even believe me? Of course, I would. It'd be really cool. I'd love to."
Earlier in the interview, Kurylenko said, "I mean, obviously the thing is, to me, I enjoy playing that character. There's so much background story. There was no time to show it all in this film because the story went into the other direction. But there's so much that, of course, it could be developed."
8. Kim Cattrall, who played the hilarious PR executive Samantha Jones on the original run of Sex and the City, as well as both of the franchise's movies, decided not to return for the reboot And Just Like That...
Cattrall had previously said no to making a third film sequel. She told Variety, "It’s a great wisdom to know when enough is enough. I also didn’t want to compromise what the show was to me. The way forward seemed clear."
She explained that she was "never asked" to participate in the reboot series, because she "made my feelings clear after the possible third movie." She added, "Can you imagine going back to a job you did 25 years ago? And the job didn’t get easier; it got more complicated in the sense of how are you going to progress with these characters? Everything has to grow, or it dies. I felt that when the series ended, I thought that’s smart. We’re not repeating ourselves."
Cattrall has not watched the reboot, but when asked about a storyline that had Carrie and Samantha suffering a falling out over Carrie's decision to no longer use Samantha as her publicist, Cattrall said, "Well, that feels different than the Samantha that I played."
9. In 2020, Lana Condor told The Wrap that she wants to reprise her role as Jubilee, the powerful mutant student she played four years prior in X-Men: Apocalypse.
Condor said, "I think that now is a really good time, and I would really like to do her justice because she didn’t have it five years ago, and I don’t think ever has. She’s a fantastic character, and now I think is the perfect time to give her what she deserves, so I would love to go back and do something with her."
10. In 2019, Hayley Atwell told the Hollywood Reporter that as far as playing Peggy Carter in live-action movies and television goes, she feels "really fulfilled" and that the creative team "ended [Peggy's story] beautifully with Endgame."
Atwell went on, "I’m a classically trained theater actor, so I want a stab at the challenging parts in the canon for theatrical actresses. That’s something that I’ve always aspired toward. So, I feel lucky to have played her, but she’s one aspect of my career. She’s one part that I’ve played."
11. Krysten Ritter told Screen Rant that she "would absolutely just die" for the opportunity to play the super strong detective Jessica Jones again.
The eponymous Netflix drama centered around the character lasted for three seasons, and Ritter reprised the role in the team-up series The Defenders.
"I had the best time doing it, and I just love her so much. I'm so proud of that character. Not only because it was, like, a great role and she's such a badass, but that character has really resonated with people in a way that I don't know who else has. Really, really resonated with women and girls, trauma survivors," said Ritter in the 2021 interview. "It's just so, so big and such a thing I'm so grateful to have been a part of. So if there's ever an opportunity for me to put on those boots, I will be there in a flash."
12. Dylan O'Brien won't be returning as Stiles Stilinski in the upcoming Paramount+ movie reboot of Teen Wolf, the actor told Variety in March 2022.
"The show couldn’t be more dear to me. It was the first thing I ever did, and so many people there are extremely dear to me. It was something I was trying to make work, but it all happened very fast," said O'Brien. "We didn’t really know that it was happening, and they kind of just threw it at us a little bit, which is fine because we all love the show."
Timing aside, O'Brien decided that Stiles and the show itself were "left in a really good place for me, and I still want to leave it there." But while he won't be appearing in the movie, he may be its most enthusiastic fan, as he promised that he'd "watch it the first night it comes out," and added that he "hope[s] it fucking kicks ass."
13. During an appearance at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, Kellan Lutz said that he would be more than willing to vamp up and play Emmett Cullen in a film adaptation of Midnight Sun, the version of Twilight told from Edward's perspective rather than Bella's.
"I mean, I love that one. I so wish we could make a movie with that," said Lutz. "Emmett has so many more funny lines in that one. It’s awesome."
14. Rick Moranis turned down the chance for a cameo appearance in the 2016 revival of Ghostbusters because he didn't see the point in returning to a world he left so many years prior.
"I hope it’s terrific. But it just makes no sense to me," Moranis told the Hollywood Reporter. "Why would I do just one day of shooting on something I did 30 years ago?"
15. In 2020, Josh Hutcherson told Entertainment Tonight that he would be "100%" willing to play Peeta Mellark again, if "they can get some of the same people involved."
About the upcoming Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Hutcherson said, "I don't know anything about it story-wise, but if it has to do with how we got to the world of the Hunger Games, then I think that's going to be super-interesting. I would like Peeta to be in it because I would like to be with these people again and work more in that world."
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is based on the novel of the same name by Suzanne Collins; it follows future dictator President Snow as a teenager attempting to secure his future through mentoring the female tribute from District 12, Lucy Gray Baird, in an early edition of the Games. While neither Peeta nor Katniss has been born at the time the story is set, there are references throughout to their ultimately revolutionary experiences in the arena.
16. In response to a question from the New York Times about whether he would be willing to return as Harry Potter in a film adaptation of the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Daniel Radcliffe responded, "This isn’t the answer that anybody’s going to want, but I think I was so able to go back and enjoy [the HBO Max reunion special] because it’s not a part of my day-to-day life anymore."
Despite the fact that returning as the Boy Who Lived isn't what Radcliffe is "really interested in doing right now," he said that he is "never going to say never." He compared his situation to that of the stars of the original Star Wars movies, pointing out while they had multiple decades in between their initial appearances and their reprisals, it's only been 10 years since he finished the franchise.
17. In a 2020 interview with Collider, Bryan Cranston said that he would appear in Better Call Saul as his Breaking Bad character Walter White "in a second" if executive producers Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould wanted him to.
And, lo and behold, it was announced in April 2022 that Cranston, as well as his co-star Aaron Paul, would be returning for the very last season of the show.
They're coming back. #BetterCallSaul
18. Julie Andrews decided not to appear in 2018's Mary Poppins Returns because she didn't want to pull focus from Emily Blunt's take on the magical nanny, who Andrews famously brought to life in 1964.
Rob Marshall, who directed the film, told Entertainment Weekly, "Julie was incredibly gracious, and we talked about it in a very general way, but she made it clear right up front. She said, 'This is Emily’s show, and I really want it to be Emily’s show. I don’t want it to be, 'Oh, here comes that Mary Poppins.' I don’t want that. I really want her to take this and run with it, because she will be brilliant.'"
19. Kiernan Shipka told Entertainment Tonight that she is "not done with Sally," the character she played for seven seasons on Mad Men.
Shipka suggested that as an adult, Sally would be living in Los Angeles, rather than New York City.
20. Jim Carrey isn't particularly interested in revisiting any of his past roles, unless they are radically different from the way he's already played them.
Carrey told E! News' Daily Pop, "Unless some genius person, director, auteur, comes to you with a completely new take on what's going on — like, if Chris Nolan came to me and said, ‘I wanna make Ace Ventura real, and I wanna do something, you know, more interesting,' then I might listen. ... After a certain time, there's not one cell in your body that is that person anymore, so you end up just imitating what you did in the old days, and the original inspiration isn't there."
21. And finally: Samuel L. Jackson said during a 2022 taping of the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he believes his Star Wars character, Mace Windu, is still alive, and that he would be more than happy to pick up a lightsaber and show the world that, too.
Jackson said, "The only person I've ever said that to, about coming back, was Bryce Dallas Howard because I just did a movie with her, and she directs episodes of The Mandalorian." He joked that he told Howard, "Put me in coach. I'm ready. I'll learn the lightsaber left-handed. Come on. Hook me up."
Learning the lightsaber left-handed is a necessity, since the last time audiences saw Mace Windu, his other hand was cut off, right before he was sent hurtling to his (temporary?) doom.
