What If?: Burton Never Met Depp
Robert Downey, Jr.
After mulling over Burton’s hypothetical Depp-less alternate universe for a couple of days, I’ve decided that there’s only one actor who could have pulled off all of these roles who was actually around to — Robert Downey, Jr.
Edward Scissorhands? (Scissor)hands down. He did Charlie Chaplin, arguably a more challenging role, just two years later. Wood? Wood have killed it. Crane? Critics would have been rendered headless. Wonka? Seems like a sweet fit. The Mad Hatter? Sounds like a helluva damn tea party. This isn’t a knock on Depp — it’s exactly the opposite. While Downey would’ve been a great Jack Sparrow, it’s just as easy to imagine Depp flying in Iron Man’s suit of armor or smoking Sherlock Holmes’ pipe. Besides, given Downey’s personal struggles, who knows if he would have even been available for some of these films.
There’s nobody else besides Downey who is even in the conversation when it comes to replacing Depp adequately in each of the five films. Just imagine if Burton had kept on riding Michael Keaton’s hot streak? Yikes. And remember what happened when he went away from Depp in favor of Mark Wahlberg for Planet of the Apes? Big Fish turned out alright, but Depp would have rocked in the Ewan McGregor role. Jim Carrey is a thought, but he hadn’t even done Fire Marshall Bill yet when Ed Wood began production.
Quintessential Quintuple
Judging by the early Alice in Wonderland reviews, it looks five times will be a charm for Burton and Depp. Burton has to feel lucky to have such a charismatic and insanely versatile actor as his go-to guy. Maybe Downey would’ve worked, maybe he wouldn’t have? Nonetheless, if Tim Burton is the Michael Jordan of creepy, zany fantasy flicks, Depp is his Scottie Pippen. It also shows just how great Depp is as an actor. There’s only one actor who can even be considered as a potential equal when it comes to the ridiculous display of range Depp exuded in Burton’s films over the past two decades, and that actor’s currently carrying two of Hollywood’s biggest franchises.
An alternate universe without Depp isn’t a universe we want to see Burton operate in anytime soon. Like Leonardo Dicaprio and Martin Scorsese, it seems this director-actor combo was born to work together.
P.S. – It would be fun to see Downey get a crack at a Burton film. Just once. Please.
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[...] like to play the “What If” game here at FlickSided. So far we’ve imagined if Tim Burton and Johnny Depp never met, an Apocalypse Now remake and six other actors who could’ve been Iron Man. For the [...]
[...] What if Tim Burton Never Met Johnny Depp – flick sided [...]
You forgot Sweeney Todd. But anyway, no one could ever replace Johnny Depp. Pitt too pretty????? You’ve got to be kidding
If Burton never met Depp… this world would be more of a dark cruel place.