Casting Call - Unbridled and Unashamed Blasphemy

[Dr Maturin]

Okay, we all know we want the regulars back for any kind of B5 production. But that may not be feasible.

I do this in part because I love casting calls. I am a casting call junkie. It is also a very real possibility that B5 will be re-booted or re-casted.

So, who would YOU choose to play the characters? Don't think of looks or voice or even prior roles; think of actors who would embody the essence of the B5 characters.

So far, I have only come up with one:

Anna Torv as Susan Ivanova. If anybody could play the role, it'd be her. She has that strong-and-smart female aura that made Ivanova. She could also brilliantly portray the character with that hidden inner weakness. A distantly second qualification would be the fact that she is of eastern European descent.

[vakie]

Anna Torv as Susan Ivanova. If anybody could play the role, it'd be her. She has that strong-and-smart female aura that made Ivanova. She could also brilliantly portray the character with that hidden inner weakness. A distantly second qualification would be the fact that she is of eastern European descent.

Sorry, but she's by far the worst actor in Fringe. Her mannerisms drive me nuts. The episode where she had to do an impression of Nimoy the whole time was just embarrassing. I'd never cast her for a lead role in anything if I'm in charge.

First thought for Ivanova is maybe someone like Alaina Huffman or Julia Benson from SGU.

[Truth66]

Interesting thread.

Not to spoil the nature of the thread, (because I think it's fun to think who else could possibly play these well known characters) but didn't JMS already set a precedent that no one else would play G'Kar. Therefore, if there was any new kind of B5, whether it a be for television or the big screen, it would be a combination of new and old actors/actresses. It wouldn't be a new actor/actress playing an already established character.
I think the fans would also be upset if there were another individual playing Dr. Franklin, Zack, etc.
Having said the above, there's another thought that just entered my head that would be in the spirit of this thread: a Babylon 5 prequel.
As we know the Star Trek franchise did this with the last film having totally new actors/actresses playing younger versions of the original characters from the original series. This could be tricky though considering that JMS already did a prequel with: In The Begining.
Not to babel here, but didn't someone post a thread somewhere on this site a while back about a prequel of the first shadow war?

[moreorless]

Thinking about it Ivanova actually seems one of the hardest roles to recast. While I have my doubts that anyone could equal the likes of Jurasik in the same role it is easier to think of those who might do a good job. Actresses who play the "tough girl" and comedian well though are IMHO very thin on the ground.

If say HBO offered JMS the chance to do a B5 reboot though I suspect it would be more a case of taking the basic framework and filling it out with a new set of characters(and perhaps races) rather than just recasting the original.

[I, Zathras]

Ivanova could be played by Yvonne Strahovski (I think I may have the spelling wrong) who plays Sarah in Chuck. With being a female spy she can do the moments which require strong characteristics, and bouncing off Chuck himself shows she can do comedy. Would be interesting to see her in the role.

You've the same problem with Delenn really, as she really grew as a character across the series and showed all different kinds of characteristics.

I agree that its hard to imagine others playing the characters, but its a fun little thread this, and you've really got me thinking.

If Sheridan was to be re-cast as English I wouldn't mind Trevor Eve in the role. He's in Waking the Dead and has a great range, and would be a good fit. Saying that, BB never looks any older so could probs do the role again anyway!

[lotjx]

Sheridan-Nathan Fillion
G'Kar-Ron Pearlman
Londo- Ray Weiss
Garibaldi- Mark A. Sheppard
Ivanova-Erica Durance
Delenn-Amy Acker
Franklin- Ernie Hudson

[JoeD80]

I think johncon is a bot.

[Jan]

Who?

All gone now.

[Marsden]

At least he was right, B5 is awsome, although I wouldn't phrase it that way myself.

What does a bot do, anyway?

I really wanted to add to this thread but I can't think of anyone, really. I'm not good at picking actors for things. Really, I wouldn't have picked half of the original people on prior work. I say that to point out my lack of good judgement and not with any disagreement in casting. I think everyone was excellent, but I only knew Claudia Christian as the stripper in "The Hidden" and Bruce Boxenlitner from "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" I forgot he was in Tron until I watched it again later, but so was Peter Jurasik in a smaller role. I thought that was cool. And I remember Jeff Conaway was on Taxi, so was Peter Jurasik in one episode he married Louie Depalma's sister played be Rhea Pearlman. I don't remember any of the others from anything before hand. And of course I didn't recognize Peter beforehand, only after B5 I learned his name and saw it was him. Afterwards you can look back and say "that was Andreas that Charle Sheen shot with a chicken*" but not but not before. Saying that, I don't know if the next people would have been anything to see already, but I think that's not in the spirit of the thread and Jan will need to edit this long useless post out.

[AmyG]

Afterwards you can look back and say "that was Andreas that Charle Sheen shot with a chicken*" but not but not before.

Marsden, it's so funny that you should mention that! Just the other day, I posted YouTube clips of two of Andreas's undignified cinema deaths on his fan Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrea...as/58519823369). One was death by chicken ("Hot Shots Part Deux") and the other was death by bouquet ("Jane Austen's Mafia!"). Even though B5 fans mostly love him for his gravitas, his magnificent voice, and his spectacular dramatic performances, Andreas had a terrific gift for comedy.