10 Movie Stars That Were Sacked By Disney And Here's Why

Ever wondered why War Machine had a different actor in the first Iron Man movie?

Sophia

• Published in Film & TV
• March 9, 2022

It's not a secret that Disney has introduced us to a lot of our favorite celebrities as we grew up, and we often thought that as a child, Disney was a magical place where any people could just be themselves. However, the reality is truly different because as it turns out, they are actually very strict when it comes to managing their stars.

While it may appear that Disney plucks the talent from nowhere and makes them into stars, this is not entirely the case. Every single one of their actors and actresses has been carefully vetted before being invited to audition for a role in a Disney production.

Their starlets must be squeaky clean or they could lose credibility with their main demographic, children. They manage the image of their stars aggressively, which means if a scandal were to break, they would not only lose money on lost future appearances but also because people would no longer see them as wholesome role models.

It's not a bad thing though, because as a big studio and being a household name, Disney has a big reputation to uphold. That's why they are merciless in firing actors that are involved in certain issues or ones that are in conflict with them.

That being said, take a look at these ten stars that got fired by Disney and why it happened!

1. Terrence Howard

Terrence Howard played Rhodes/War Machine in the first Iron Man, a close friend of Tony Stark. However, he got replaced by Don Cheadler from the second Iron Man movie and all the other following films.

Howard revealed that he was replaced because of a pay dispute, as he answered a fan that asked him why he wasn't in the sequel of Iron Man.

"This is gonna get me in a lot of trouble. It turns out that the person I helped become Iron Man, when it was time to re-up for the second one, took the money that was gonna go to me and pushed me out," he says.

2. Ryan Gosling

Gosling said in an interview with the Telegraph that he was actually fired by Disney, and this happened way back when he was just 12 years old. He was a Mouseketeer, alongside with Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, but the studio straight up told him he wasn't Disney Material because he was constantly telling the other two about more explicit and mature things.

3. Jake Paul

Jake Paul was in the Disney+ show Bizaardvark in 2016-2018 but was nowhere to be found in the third season.

"They basically called me and were like, ‘Yo, what’s going on, what’s going on?’ And I just explained the situation, and they were like, ‘OK. We want to expedite this process of weaning you off the show' and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s fine. But it’s going to look like you guys fired me.’ and they were like, ‘We can say that we mutually parted ways and blah, blah, blah.’ And that’s the reality of the story," he explains.

4. Megan Mullally

Megan revealed on The Wayne Brady Show In 2004 that she was actually hired to voice a character Finding Nemo. She said that the job didn't work out because she refused to use the same high-pitched voice she used in Will and Grace for the character.

5. PewDiePie

“Although Felix has created a following by being provocative and irreverent, he clearly went too far in this case and the resulting videos are inappropriate. Maker Studios has made the decision to end our affiliation with him going forward," said Disney's Maker Studios after cancelling a contract with Swedish YouTuber Felix Kjellberg, aka PewDiePie.

6. Roseanne Barr

Roseanne Barr was fired by Disney+ after making a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, the former advisor to Barack Obama.

"It seemed completely insensitive, completely disrespectful. It was very clear. The decision, it was easy to make," Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed in an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

7. James Gunn

James Gunn was fired by Disney in 2018 when a couple of his past offensive social media posts resurfaced online. However, after a number of celebrities expressed their support for Gunn. plus a fan-made petition with over 400,000 signatures, Gunn was rehired as the writer-director of Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

8. Mitchel Musso

Musso, Oliver from Hannah Montana and the voice of Jeremy Johnson on Phineas and Ferb, was forced to leave Pair of Kings because of a DUI arrest.

9. Steve Whitmire

Steve Whitmire, the voice behind the "Kermit the Frog" for nearly 30 years, was replaced by Disney with Matt Vogel in 2017. According to Whitmire, the reasons were "unwanted notes during the short-lived Muppets reboot on ABC" and a "union disagreement."

10. Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison, a sci-fi writer known for Star Trek and The Man From U.N.C.L.E, was fired by Disney right on his first day. He flippantly suggested that the company should “do a Disney porn flick.”

Even by Hollywood standards, Disney is famous for ruthlessly suppressing anything that might tarnish its images. But we can't blame them for it because they have a wide young demographic, and parents should be able to let their children watch Disney content without any worries of tainting their minds.

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Sophia