Bruce: That fight was so long ago, I'm a completely different person now. Literally!
Jennifer: (glances at the camera) Ha-Ha.
Jennifer: (glances at the camera) Ha-Ha.
- Terrence Howard played Colonel James Rhodes in Iron Man. But in the sequels, the role is played by Don Cheadle. Given a funny Lampshade Hanging in his first appearance in Iron Man 2, when Rhodes testifies against Tony Stark in a Senate hearing.Tony: I didn't expect to see you here…
Rhodes: Well, it's me, and I'm here. So, get over it and move on. - Edward Norton played Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk, while Mark Ruffalo replaces him in The Avengers. Combined with the non-MCU movie Hulk, with Eric Bana in the lead role, Ruffalo became the third actor in less than a decade to play Bruce Banner. The casting of Ruffalo stuck, however.
- Ruffalo claimed he and Norton had a private joke that Bruce Banner was their generation's Hamlet, with every actor in their age group destined to try his hand at it. The trend has also led Anthony Mackie to jokingly use the term "Terrence Norton'ed" to describe the practice of actors being fired and replaced.
- The recast finally received an in-universe nod in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. Jennifer Walters calls Bruce to ask him if he's okay with her legally representing Emil Blonsky, the antagonist from The Incredible Hulk.Bruce: That fight was so long ago, I'm a completely different person now. Literally!
Jennifer: (glances at the camera) Ha-Ha.
- In the first Thor movie, Fandrall was played by Josh Dallas. In Thor: The Dark World, Fandrall was played by Zachary Levi, since Dallas was too committed with Once Upon a Time to reprise the role. Ironically, Levi first auditioned for the role in the first movie, but was too busy with Chuck at the time. Levi later reprised his role as Fandrall in Thor: Ragnarok.
- In The Avengers, Thanos was played by Damion Poitier. In Guardians of the Galaxy, Josh Brolin played the character, and remained as him ever since. The most likely reason for this is that Brolin has more name recognition than Poitier, and therefore would sell future movies.
- Iron Man has Gerard Sanders as Howard Stark in photographs. John Slattery took over the role in Iron Man 2.
- Dominic Cooper portrayed a younger version of the character in both Captain America: The First Avenger and Agent Carter, while Slattery took over again in Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame.
- Speaking of Ant-Man, Janet van Dyne is played in flashbacks by Haylet Lovitt. In its sequel, Janet is played by Michelle Pfeiffer. This is less jarring than other examples of the trope since Janet's face was covered by a mask in the flashbacks.
- In Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp, Cassie Lang was played by Abby Ryder Fortson. The character's older self was played by Emma Fuhrmann following the five-year Time Skip in Avengers: Endgame, who was then replaced by Kathryn Newton for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
- Hugo Weaving portrayed the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger, but was unhappy with the part, and made it clear in subsequent interviews that he had no interest in reprising his role. Because of this, Ross Marquand took over the part for the Red Skull's cameos in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, as well as voicing the character in What If...?.
- An In-Universe example happens with Quicksilver in WandaVision. Originally played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron, here he's played by Evan Peters, who reprises his role from the X-Men Film Series. This is even lampshaded by Darcy Lewis who says "She recast Pietro?". Ultimately subverted when it's revealed that Peters is actually playing Ralph Bohner, a Westview resident manipulated by Agatha Harkness into "playing" Quicksilver.
- While What If...? brings back a majority of the MCU's actors to voice their characters, some other characters are recast entirely. Along with actors done with their characters, there's a few cases of Poor Man's Substitute:
- Josh Keaton replaces Chris Evans as Steve Rogers.
- Lake Bell replaces Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.
- Mick Wingert replaces Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man.
- Hudson Thames replaces Tom Holland as Spider-Man.
- Ozioma Akagha replaces Letitia Wright as Shuri.
- Ross Marquand replaces Hugo Weaving as Red Skull and James Spader as Ultron.
- Fred Tatasciore replaces Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer, Ray Stevenson as Volstagg, Michael James Shaw as Corvus Glaive, and Vin Diesel as Groot.
- Brian T. Delaney replaces Chris Pratt as Peter Quill.
- Cynthia Kaye McWilliams replaces Zoe Saldaña as Gamora.
- Alexandra Daniels replaces Brie Larson as Captain Marvel.
- Stephanie Panisello replaces Liv Tyler as Betty Ross.
- Mike McGill replaces William Hurt as Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross.
- Beth Hoyt replaces Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts.
- Kiff Vanden Heuvel replaces Jeff Bridges as Obadiah Stane.
- Josette Eales replaces Rene Russo as Frigga.
- Max Mittelman replaces Joshua Dallas (himself replaced after the first Thor by Zachary Levi) as Fandral.
- David Chen replaces Tadanobu Asano as Hogun.
- Julianne Grossman replaces Glenn Close as Irani Rael
- Mace Montgomery Miskel replaces Wyatt Oleff as Young Peter Quill
- Keri Tombazian replaces Annette Bening as Mar-Vell
- Jeff Bergman replaces Anthony Hopkins as Odin
- Feodor Chin replaces Tony Leung Chiu-wai as Wenwu/Mandarin
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: In season 3, the one-shot character Nathaniel Malick was portrayed by Joel Courtney. When the character reappears in Season 7 as one of the main antagonists, he is portrayed by Thomas E. Sullivan as Courtney was too committed to The Kissing Booth films to reprise his role.
- Tina Minoru was portrayed by Linda Louise Duan when she had a minor appearance in Doctor Strange (2016), and subsequently by Brittany Ishibashi when she appeared in a leading role in Runaways (2017). Complicated significantly by the Flip-Flop of God on the subject of whether they're the same character or not: the two actors are over a decade apart in agenote , and the character's national origins switched from Chinese to Japanese between appearances, so the initial claim was that they were two unrelated characters who happened to have the same name and similar powers. However, in Season 2 of Runaways, Tina lets drop a few hints that she was present for some of the events of Doctor Strange, suggesting that the decision was made to merge the characters after all. It's then never brought up again.
- Ross Marquandnote replaces James Spader as the voice of the Earth-838 Ultron drones in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. He also voiced another universe's version of Ultron in What If…? (2021).
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 cast Miley Cyrus as Mainframe, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 replaced her with Tara Strong.
- Harrison Ford will replace William Hurt as Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross from Captain America: Brave New World onwards due to the latter's death.
