Summary
- Gender-swapping characters can lead to improved versions of the original, attracting more viewers.
- Despite negative reviews for the overall movie or TV show, gender-swapped characters can still be great and bring interesting changes to their stories.
- Gender-swapping characters can break gender and racial barriers, refreshing traditional character dynamics and stereotypes.
Various movie and TV characters have gone through a gender-swap recast, and some ended up improving upon the original version. Gender-swapping characters isn't a recent thing in the world of entertainment, but there have been a lot more examples in recent years and more attention has been given to these characters. There's no rule to follow when gender-swapping characters, but it seems to attract the attention of more viewers when it's a typically male character recast as a woman.
In many cases, the movie or TV itself isn’t well-received by critics and viewers, but the gender-swapped character(s) turns out to be great and even better than the original version. These gender-swap recasts are not exclusive to movie and TV remakes, and adaptations of literary or comic book characters also apply, as some of them found more success and popularity after being adapted with a different gender. Gender-swapping characters has been criticized in recent years, but even if some have failed, there are others who brought interesting changes to their stories.
10 Ali Davis in What Men Want
Original version: Nick Marshall, What Women Want.
The 2000 romantic fantasy comedy What Women Want, directed by Nancy Meyers, follows Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson), who gains the ability to hear women’s thoughts and starts using this to his advantage. Nick was a sexist character who, unsurprisingly, learned a moral lesson at the end of the movie after using his power to sabotage new colleague Darcy (Helen Hunt), but Who Men Want gave the character a much-needed twist. In it, Ali Davis (Taraji P. Henson) gained the ability to hear men’s thoughts, which she used to navigate a male-dominated career as a sports agent. Surely, chaos also ensued in What Men Want, but Ali, as a character, was better than Nick.
9 Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica (2004)
Original version: Lt. Starbuck, Battlestar Galactica (1978).
The 2004 re-imagining of the 1978 sci-fi TV series Battlestar Galactica changed Lt. Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) and turned him into Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Katee Sackhoff). This decision was defended by showrunner Ronald D. Moore (via Wired), who said that gender-swapping Starbuck was a way of avoiding the cliché of “rogue pilot with a heart of gold”. While the original Starbuck is a fan-favorite, Sackhoff’s version is a more complex character whose rebellious nature was hiding a lot of inner demons.
8 Jo & Penn in The Hustle
Original version: Freddy & Lawrence, Dirty Little Scoundrels.
Chris Addison’s comedy The Hustle is a gender-swap remake of the 1988 comedy Dirty Little Scoundrels, which is a remake of the 1964 movie Bedtime Story. The Hustle follows two con women, Jo (Anne Hathaway) and Penn (Rebel Wilson), who team up to take down the men who have wronged them. The Hustle got negative reviews from critics, but the comedic chemistry between Hathaway and Wilson brought some freshness to this remake, even if not all the jokes landed.
7 Leonardo & Kate in Overboard (2018)
Original version: Joanna & Dean, Overboard (1987).
Rob Greenberg’s 2018 rom-com Overboard is a remake of Garry Marshall’s 1987 movie of the same name, but with its two main characters gender-swapped. Goldie Hawn’s heiress Joana Mintz-Stayton became spoiled playboy Leonardo Montenegro (Eugenio Derbez), and Kurt Russell’s widower carpenter Dean Proffitt became widowed single mother Kate Sullivan (Anna Faris). While the comedy of Overboard was well-received, what made the gender-swapped remake work was that it not only broke gender barriers but also racial ones, avoiding the hurtful stereotype of Mexican characters in movies.
6 Maggie Peyton in Herbie: Fully Loaded
Original version: Jim Douglas, The Love Bug, Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo, & Disney’s The Love Bug.
The 2005 sports comedy Herbie: Fully Loaded is the sixth and final installment in the Herbie film series and changed Jim Douglas for Maggie Peyton (Lindsay Lohan), a college graduate coming from a racing clan. The Herbie movies haven’t been the critics’ favorites, though some got better reviews than others, and while Herbie: Fully Loaded got mixed reviews, Lohan’s character was well-received by fans of the film series. Not only was Lohan a major draw for younger viewers but she also brought her unique charm that was key for the film series to be revived, even if briefly, and it was refreshing to see a woman driving Herbie.
5 Jeri Hogarth in Jessica Jones
Marvel Comics’ Jeri Hogarth was a male character.
The Netflix Marvel TV series Jessica Jones had one gender-swapped character: Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Ann Moss). Hogarth was an attorney who hired Jessica Jones for different cases. In the comics, Jeri is a male character who is also an attorney, serving as such for Heroes for Hire, and a friend of Iron Fist’s father. The TV version of Jeri Hogarth was a lot more developed than her comic book counterpart, and in addition to running the law firm Hogarth, Chao & Benowitz, she was also dealing with a divorce and got involved in the conflict between Jessica and Kilgrave. Despite being a potential ally to Jessica, Jeri was unpredictable as she could also be quite selfish.
4 Pinhead in Hellraiser (2022)
Original version played by Doug Bradley in Hellraiser (1987).
Clive Barker’s Hellraiser introduced the audience to the Cenobites and their leader, known as the Priest or, among viewers, as Pinhead. Pinhead became the image of the Hellraiser saga, and in 2022, the franchise was rebooted and Pinhead was recast and made into a female character. Jamie Clayton played Pinhead in the 2022 reboot, and even though she doesn’t have much screen time, her performance was quite disturbing but without copying Bradley’s iconic performances. Clayton’s Pinhead also had a more nightmarish design than Bradley’s, which added to the unsettling nature of the character.
3 M in the Bond Franchise
M was a male character in Ian Fleming’s novels & previous Bond movies.
M is the codename for the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in Ian Fleming’s James Bond universe. M was played in James Bond’s films by Bernard Lee and Robert Brown, and in 1995, Judi Dench took over the role in GoldenEye, the first movie with Pierce Brosnan as James Bond. Dench continued to play the character throughout the rest of Brosnan’s time as Bond and through most of Daniel Craig’s movies, and she was killed in Skyfall.
Dench’s version of M was a lot more developed than previous versions, going from cold and distrustful of Bond to forming a special bond with him, and was gradually given a bigger role in the movies, particularly in Skyfall, where she was a key player in the plot.
Judi Dench’s M is the first one to be given an on-screen death.
2 Cameron Kweller in He’s All That
Original version: Laney Boggs, She’s All That.
The 1999 teen comedy She’s All That got the gender-swap treatment in 2021, and while the remake didn’t succeed, its male version of Laney Boggs was an improvement in a couple of ways. The biggest problem with He’s All That was that its main character, Padgett (Addison Rae), was not relatable at all and was too self-absorbed, while Laney’s counterpart, Cameron (Tanner Buchanan), kept the basic premise of the original character.
Cameron and his sister, Brin, lost their mother in a plane crash, and as their father resided in Sweden, they lived with their grandmother. Cameron’s relationship with Brin was more developed than that of Laney and her brother, allowing viewers to get to know Cameron at a more personal level than Laney, who was reduced to the broke, artsy girl who was “beautiful all along”.
How He's All That Compares To She's All That: Differences & Which Is Better
He's All That is a gender-swapped remake of She's All That, and while they follow the same premise, they are very different. Let's take a look.
1 The Whole Team in Ocean’s 8
The Ocean’s series initially had an all-male team.
Ocean’s 8 is the fourth installment in the Ocean’s series and a spin-off from the previous films, following a completely different team now formed by women. Led by Debbie Ocean (Sandra Bullock), sister of Danny Ocean (George Clooney), the team was formed by Lou Miller (Cate Blanchett), Daphne (Anne Hathaway), Amita (Mindy Kaling), Tammy (Sarah Paulson), Constance (Awkwafina), Nine Ball (Rihanna), and Rose (Helena Bonham Carter), and together they planned an elaborate heist at the annual Met Gala. The cast’s chemistry surprised critics and audiences and brought a different type of complicity and connection than the one seen with Danny Ocean’s team in the previous movies, bringing a fun twist to the film series.
