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While Barbenheimer continues to win the box office around the world, and actors and writers in Hollywood continue their strike, it's time to talk about movies and failures. Okay, relative failures, because leading roles in even average movies or TV shows are still good money.

But if we compare reality with the expectations that some rising screen stars had in their youth - both from critics or colleagues and movie-goers, then it turns out that many of them clearly did not live up to these expectations. And a recent viral thread in the r/popculturechat community is dedicated to just such actors and actresses. So lights, camera, action, reading!...

More info: Reddit

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#1

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I know he’s had a good run, but surprised that no one said Joseph Gordon Levitt. Dude was everywhere in the early 10’s it felt like. Had a ton of hype off of some solid performances then he seemed to drop off the face of the earth by the late 10’s.

Shenanigans80h , PunkToad Report

Final score:
39points
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#2

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I’d like to argue Hayden Christensen After Star Wars, we barely saw him in anything because he had so much backlash over the role even though now he’s remembered quite fondly. He’s had a career revival lately with his performance in the Obi-wan show so I hope he’ll be seen and cast a lot more now

Puzzleheaded_Eye7311 , Geoffrey Chandler Report

Final score:
37points
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#3

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Eliza Dushku—I thought she was going to be huge, but she kind of disappeared!

meowparade , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
32points
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Let's start with the fact that everything is known in comparison. And you can’t call a person a loser just because you expected multimillion-dollar contracts per role, and they now receive “only” a couple of hundred thousand bucks for a movie. And almost all the people on this list continue acting in movies, remain in demand on the market, and, in general, have achieved a decent place in the profession. And the fact that once someone expected them to become "The Next Big Thing" - well, sorry, life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what's inside.
#4

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Taylor Lautner disappeared from the screen after the Twilight movies ended.

SJP_06 , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
29points
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#5

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Josh Hurtchenson disappeared after Hunger Games, I was wondering what happened to his career after the last movie, but someone told me they read on a interview that it was his choice, I guess he decided to take a break for a few years, apparently he's living in Spain with his girlfriend, but he's having a bit of comeback this year with a new movie, a horror one I think.

samsienna , Eva Rinaldi Report

Final score:
29points
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#6

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Was always surprised Sam Claflin didn’t have a bigger career after Hunger Games. I always mixed him up with Alex Pettyfer back in that era, but Sam’s hopefully the less problematic one lol. He was recently great in Peaky Blinders and Daisy Jones though, so hopefully he’ll get more projects!

cymru_yesac , Peter Kudlacz Report

Final score:
25points
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Let's take, for example, Dane DeHaan, who is also in this compilation. Yes, in the first half of the last decade, he was perceived as a rising star, with critics admiring his acting both in Hollywood and on Broadway. It seemed that the next stop for him would be the Oscar... But it wasn't - in 2017 it was Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets which nearly failed, and after that, for six years, the actor did not get a single starring role in movies, and mostly acted in serials.

At the same time, his acting hasn't gotten worse - for example, in Oppenheimer, Dane looks completely decent against the background of his superstar colleagues. It's just the way things were. On the other hand, DeHaan is 37 years old - by Hollywood actors' standards, that's almost youth, so another breakthrough may well happen... Who knows?

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#7

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Dylan O'Brien. He was on Teen Wolf and a big role in Maze Runner. I think he was injured on Maze Runner but haven't heard much from him after that.

bookgeek42 , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
24points
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#8

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Michelle Trachtenberg

standinginagalaxy , dodge challenger1 Report

Final score:
23points
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#9

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I feel like Logan Lerman was supposed to have timothee’s career! He obviously was known for Percy Jackson but I loved him in perks of being a wallflower

yeehawbookworm , Francesca Luna Barone (ig:francabbx) Report

Final score:
21points
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"This list mostly features actors who have starred in iconic teen movies or TV series, and a lot of the charm of their young characters has been transferred to the performers," says Dmytro Kosygin, a film director and cameraman from Ukraine, to whom Bored Panda reached out for a comment. “It happens, and it has been the whole history of cinema - literally in any decade there were actors and actresses who were predicted to have a superstar future, and they turned out to be 'just' big professionals. Nothing more. In the end, only four acting Oscars are given out a year - you can’t get enough of everyone."

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“On the other hand, the history of cinema has confirmed many times that miracles happen here. For example, John Travolta, who was almost forgotten in the eighties, regained his superstar status thanks to filming in Pulp Fiction, and Robert Downey Jr., who would definitely have ended up on a list like this somewhere in the mid-'90s, over time, not only managed to triumphantly come back, but also became what he was seen as in his youth - one of the main stars of Hollywood. Therefore, who knows - maybe one of the people listed here will get the Oscar in ten years or so?" Dmytro presumes.
#10

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Y’all gonna kill me for saying this but Skeet Ulrich I was told had crazy hype after scream by my older sister and then he completely fizzled out

babalon124 , Dru Kelly Report

Final score:
20points
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#11

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Shailene Woodley was supposed to be the next Jennifer Lawrence, but her career tanked right alongside Divergent when the YA Adaptation bubble burst.

foxscribbles , Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV Report

Final score:
18points
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#12

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Maybe it's me living under a rock but I feel like Felicity Jones was on track to be super A list but the. just disappeared 

oat_milquetoast , Dick Thomas Johnson Report

Final score:
17points
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However, this is another reason to scroll this selection to the very end - because then, many years later, if one of the people listed here achieves stunning success, you can always proudly say: “Yeah, I remember how everyone doubted them!" So just read this list, add more names in the comments, in case you remember any more, and maybe go rewatch Twilight or The Hunger Games - but not before you've read this post to the end, okay?
#13

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After sara paxton. they put her in everything to make an effort at making her the next big thing

annnyywhooo , GabboT Report

Final score:
16points
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#14

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Who remembers Jai Courtney?! They tried to make him a thing but it never worked out.

LinksMilkBottle , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
15points
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#15

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I thought Mia Wasikowska was gaining traction in the early 2010s but I haven’t seen her in much since.

veiled_lodger , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
14points
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#16

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After No one mentioned Theo James yet?? Glad he’s getting more attention after White Lotus!

cymru_yesac , Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV Report

Final score:
14points
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#17

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After This is older but Jenna Malone?! She was in so many iconic movies from the early aughts and kinda fell off. That said, I think she has the perfect level of fame: has had some notable projects that probably have served her well financially, but she’s not overexposed and can live a somewhat private life.

YouNeedCheeses , MAKY.OREL Report

Final score:
14points
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#18

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Taylor Kitsch

MacaroniMistress , Eva Rinaldi Report

Final score:
13points
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#19

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Larisa Oleynik! She just kind of disappeared. I think she was in Mad Men for a hot second?

thesmallestwaffle , LA NY LA Report

Final score:
12points
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#20

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Dane DeHaan. Someone in another thread on here today mentioned how every young up and coming white male actor always gets compared Leo DiCaprio; I remember when Dane DeHaan was starting out and had been in Chronicle and Place Beyond the Pines, he got compared Leo around 2012-2013/2014. After Amazing Spider Man 2 and that Valerian movie with Cara Delevingne, he fizzled out. He was recently in Oppenheimer and he was good in it despite him not being in the movie as much, it made me wish he had become a bigger star.

PinkCadillacs , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
12points
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#21

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Lee Pace. He was everywhere like 10 years. Marvel, the Hobbit, had a tv show, etc.

packersaremyboo , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
12points
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#22

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Does Emma Watson count? I don’t know if her “phase out” is intentional on her part though…

I feel like she exhausts the general public and doesn’t wow enough in her roles so people just forget about her? Tolerate her? I feel like Dan and Rupert have the bigger cult following, even though Hermione is an extremely beloved character.

ZaZaZaatar , Sergiy Galyonkin Report

Final score:
12points
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#23

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I thought Millie Bobby Brown was going to be bigger by now.

flowersinmyteas , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
11points
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#24

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After This was over a decade ago but Brandon Routh was suppose to be huge. The next Tom Cruise but haven’t heard much about him since Superman.

DeeDeeW1313 , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
10points
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#25

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Isla Fisher

teetnxo , GJ Kooijman Report

Final score:
10points
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#26

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Elisha Cuthbert

mollyclaireh , Kristin Dos Santos Report

Final score:
10points
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#27

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I loved Anna Sophia Robb, but I haven't heard much about her since The Carry Diaries. 

bunnanamilkshake , Alyse & Remi from Los Angeles Report

Final score:
9points
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#28

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After I haven't seen his name yet but Garrett Hedlund.

KooKoobananaa , Gage Skidmore Report

Final score:
9points
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#29

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After Alex Pettyfer! He starred in Beastly and Magic Mike but allegedly had issues with Channing Tatum on set of Magic Mike. His movie I am Number Four flopped and rumours were swirling that he was difficult to work with on set. He was briefly engaged to Riley Keough

UnlikelyFig2822 , El Hormiguero Report

Final score:
7points
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#30

30 Times Actors Made Waves While Starting Their Careers Only To Fizzle Out Soon After James van Der Beek... everyone else from Dawson's creek has had a come back at some point but he really just didn't

heygurl34 , Gordon Correll Report

Final score:
5points
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Note: this post originally had 39 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.

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