Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

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The Wire had some of the best casting for a TV show ever, but there’s so much talent today that could give the original actors a run for their money.

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Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

The Wire is often regarded as one of the greatest TV shows ever made, as it’s commitment to well researched police work and the realistic depiction of Baltimore made it another notch in HBO’s belt. But what also made it great was the casting, as it made stars out of most the actors.

It was Idris Elba’s breakthrough role, and even Michael B. Jorden had a major role at just 15 years old. But as great as the original cast is, there’s so much talent in film and on TV that could give the original actors a run for their money.

10 Tommy Carcetti / Andrew Scott

Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

When it comes to the greatest actors of this generation, Aiden Gillen is unfairly overlooked, and his role in The Wire is the best example of his acting ability. Not only must the Irish actor put on an American accent, but he also has to understand endless law terminology, and then recite it in Tommy’s iconic fast-paced delivery. In that respect, Tommy Carcetti is the hardest of the characters to recast.

However, the only decent replacement for Gillen is Andrew Scott, and it isn’t because they’re both Irish. Scott is best known for playing Moriarty in BBC’s Sherlock, and like Tommy, that character is extremely fast-talking and has an intense stare. Scott is so great at never breaking eye contact, Tommy is one of the best characters introduced after The Wire season 1, and Scott could bring the character to life just as Gillen did.

9 Herc / Jesse Plemons

Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

Herc is one of the most lovable characters in The Wire, and that’s because, despite his rough, alpha male cop act, he’s dumb but means well. Jesse Plemons has always played figures of authority, such as police officer Gary Kingsbury in Game Night, so playing Herc wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for him.

However, Plemons has never portrayed a demanding, alpha male type character like Herc. Even when he was playing the psychopathic Tod in Breaking Bad, he depicted the character in a laid-back way. So it’d be great to see Plemons slamming drug dealers against walls and getting a little dirty for once.

8 Ellis Carver / Donald Glover

Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

Herc’s partner in crime, Ellis, is a lot like the meathead in a lot of ways, but Ellis is much more three-dimensional. Ellis is smarter than people think and he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. But the mistakes he has made over the series also weighs on his mind more than other characters too.

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Donald Glover has the range to encompass all of Ellis’ characteristics, whether it’s craving more responsibility or his strange love/hate relationship with the young dealers in Hamsterdam. And above all else, nobody knows how to combine comedy and drama better than Glover.

7 Cedric Daniels / Don Cheadle

Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

The great thing about Cedric Daniels is that everything he needs to say, he simply says it with that intimidating downwards look. But when he does have something to say, he says it with such confidence and clarity. He’s the elder statesman of the Barksdale group and much older than the rest of them.

Don Cheadle often gives off a similarly intimidating vibe, such as his role as Maurice in Black Monday. And he’s able to deliver monologues that are as convincing as any motivational speech Cedric has ever giving. Not to mention that Don Cheadle has the same slender build that Cedric has too.

6 Roland Pryzbylewski / Martin Freeman

Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

Roland Pryzbylewski is the most pathetic character in The Wire, but that isn’t to say he isn’t just as three-dimensional as the other characters. The shamed cop is terrible at his job and though it’s left ambiguous, there’s an argument to be made that racism runs through his blood too. But the character is a great logical thinker and he actually cares about the law.

For a while at the beginning of his career, Martin Freeman was typecast as a man who was completely inadequate at what he did and the guy that everybody felt sorry for. Even in Captain America: Civil War, he portrayed a government official as a bag of nerves. Though Roland’s story arc is one of the things that doesn’t make sense about The Wire, nobody could play a shamed former cop-turned-school teacher better than Freeman.

5 Kima Greggs / Dominique Thorne

Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

Kima Greggs is one of the strongest characters on the show, as she gets shot whilst undercover but is still willing to go back out on the field to take down drug dealers. She rarely ever lets her guard down, but she also has a strong sense of humor, especially when she makes the men on the team feel awkward.

Dominique Thorne has been on the rise for a while now, as she’ll be the lead in the upcoming Marvel series Ironheart and will have a prominent role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. But she showed how much of a powerhouse of an actor she is in Judas and the Black Messiah. Her performance of a member of the Black Panthers would translate over to playing Kima well.

4 Stringer Bell / Jonathan Majors

Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

Stringer Bell is the most intelligent gangster in The Wire, and it was mostly Avon’s outlandish demands and refusal to properly launder money that got the character into trouble. Stringer was building apartment complexes and he was a businessman just as much as he was a drug dealer. But when he did have to get dirty, he was so frightening due to his dominating stature.

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Jonathan Majors is now most famous for playing He Who Remains in the final episode of Loki, which was a goofy introduction to the actor. However, he has the build and the ability to be just as intimidating as Stringer. On top of that, Majors has gotten into a habit of playing intelligent characters, whether it’s Kang the Conquerer or David in Da 5 Bloods.

3 Avon Barksdale / Jimmie Fails

Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

Jimmie Fails has very few credits to his name, but the two movies he has starred in showed how much charisma he has on screen. Fails has a scrappy energy to him, and that could translate well when playing Avon, who was always unpredictable in the show.

More than anything, Fails starred alongside Jonathan Majors in The Last Black Man in San Francisco, and their chemistry is so strong. Given how Stringer and Avon are so tied together in the show, seeing the two actors work so closely for multiple years is what anybody who has seen the 2019 movie would kill for.

2 Jimmy McNulty / Taylor Kitsch

Recasting The Wire If It Was Made Today

Taylor Kitsch has always gotten a bad rep for starring in X-Men Origins: Wolverine and John Carter, two movies that were negatively received and performed poorly at the box office. Kitsch is a good actor, and he had a similar role to McNulty in True Detective. But while the performance was great, it was in the worst season of the show. It proved that, more than anything, that actor is just unlucky.

On top of that, Kitsch has an uncanny likeness to McNulty, which is unkempt and rugged. Though alcoholic detectives have become something of a stereotype, McNulty has one of the best Wire character arcs, and it’d finally be a way for Kitsch to show how much range he really has.

1 Omar Little / LaKeith Stanfield

Though he’s still a terrible human being, as he murders people in cold blood and dishes out drugs to anyone who comes asking, Omar is like a depraved Robin Hood. More than anything, he’s by far the most entertaining character in the show. Whether it’s turning up to court with a tie around his neck but still wearing a tracksuit or walking down the street in a trenchcoat, toting a shotgun, and whistling his signature tune, few people can imitate the character.

LaKeith Stanfield is the best actor working today who could carry that questionable charm that original actor Michael K. Williams wore so well. Whether it’s in Knives Out or Sorry To Bother You, Stanfield brings a swagger to all of his roles. He’s also shown how great he can be at playing an informant anti-hero type character in Judas and the Black Messiah too.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/recasting-wire-made-today/

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