The reasons behind actors leaving film franchises are varied. Often, it stems from artistic aspirations, as they seek fresh challenges after a long stint in a familiar role, or from narrative choices by writers aiming for dramatic impact. Alternatively, financial disagreements can lead to a departure when there’s no consensus on the paycheck’s final figures.

Regardless of the cause, let’s revisit some actors who have made a return to film franchises after stepping away. Given Hollywood’s current penchant for nostalgia, it’s likely this list will continue to grow.

Take Jamie Lee Curtis, for example. After her role in 1981’s “Halloween II,” her character Laurie Strode was written out of the “Halloween” saga, allegedly having died off-screen. Curtis herself was eager to explore different projects, believing “Halloween II” provided a fitting end for Laurie. Yet, in 1998’s “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later,” Laurie reappeared, having faked her death to escape the clutches of Michael Myers, the infamous masked killer. Laurie’s real demise came in 2002’s “Halloween: Resurrection,” but soon after, the franchise was rebooted with Rob Zombie’s vision.

After 1981’s “Halloween II,” Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode disappeared from the “Halloween” story. The reason provided was that Laurie had died — off screen, naturally — so Michael Myers moved on with his serial killer life and terrorized new victims. The truth was that Curtis wanted to do other projects and thought “Halloween II” was a conclusive send-off for her character. In 1998’s “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later,” Laurie returned, revealing that she faked her death to not have to deal with that psychopath who wears a William Shatner mask. Four years later, Laurie would die for real in “Halloween: Resurrection.” Not long afterward, “Halloween” received a full-blown reboot through Rob Zombie’s movies.

In 2018’s “Halloween,” the original timeline is reinstated, with this story taking place after the events of 1978’s “Halloween” and ignoring all further sequels. If it sounds confusing, it’s because it is, but the important part to remember is that Curtis came back as Laurie for David Gordon Green’s trilogy of films — oh, and Laurie survives in the end here.

So, why did Curtis return as Laurie yet again? As the actor told Variety, it was all about the story and giving Laurie a redo after the divisive sequels. “We shed all of that other stuff and just went back to what made the original so great,” she said. “John [Carpenter] didn’t write most of those films, so it was just all these new people making up stories. But with this one, we just literally cut the line.”

The late Sir Sean Connery became the first person to bring Ian Fleming’s charismatic super spy to life on the big screen. Between 1962 and 1971, he portrayed James Bond six times and endeared himself to generations of fans. It was a terrific run, and no one could have felt too hard done by that he wanted to do something else as an actor afterward. Consequently, Roger Moore took over as 007 and embarked on his own seminal run of shaking, not stirring.

In 1983, however, Connery returned as Bond in the non-Eon-produced film “Never Say Never Again” — an adaptation of “Thunderball,” which ironically Connery had done a movie of before. The whole matter around “Thunderball” is complex, since it was a novel based on an unfilmed screenplay, but it eventually was turned into a movie; however, there were legal disputes over the authorship of the book and culminated in complicated rights issues years thereafter. Resultantly, “Never Say Never Again” is considered outside of the regular 007 canon, and the real reason 1983 had two James Bond movies in the same year.

For Connery, he returned to the famous role after being offered a handsome payday, box office backends, and creative control in both casting and the script. To his credit, he never tried to turn his version of Bond and Moore’s into a cutthroat competition, since the two actors were friends behind the scenes. Ultimately, though, “Octopussy” turned out to be the bigger box office hit of 1983.

Tim Burton and Michael Keaton proved to be the dynamic duo of Batman’s Burtonverse. Even after the director departed the franchise, the plan was for Keaton to continue as the Dark Knight in 1995’s “Batman Forever.” However, once the actor understood that Joel Schumacher’s movie would be a heavily nippled and neon vision, he vacated Wayne Manor and handed over the keys to the Batmobile. Boom. Gone forever — or so everyone thought.

In 2023, Keaton’s Caped Crusader returned to the DC film franchise, appearing in the multiverse mayhem of Andy Muschietti’s “The Flash.” For the actor, he always wondered if he could have another crack at Batman, so when the opportunity presented itself after 30 years, he answered the challenge. “And so I thought, ‘Well, now that they’re asking me, let me see if I can pull that off,’” he told The Hollywood Reporter, adding how he needed some time to understand the multiverse nature of the story, but he liked Christina Hodson’s script and what Muschietti planned to do with the movie.

Keaton’s Dark Knight also featured in the scrapped “Batgirl” movie, and there were rumors of another Bat-related project on the horizon: “Batman Beyond.” Of course, this all led to nowhere, as the DC Universe received a reboot. You can say what you want about the movie, but “The Flash” proves Michael Keaton’s “Batman Beyond” should have never been canceled. So, pass the tissues, and let us all cry together about that missed opportunity at making movie magic.

In the 2000s, Matt Damon brought his A-game as the amnesiac CIA operative Jason Bourne. Along the way, he built up a fantastic partnership with director Paul Greengrass, who stood behind the camera for 2004’s “The Bourne Supremacy” and 2007’s “The Bourne Ultimatum.” When talks began for a fourth “Bourne” movie, Greengrass waved goodbye to the spy games and went on to work on another project. Subsequently, Damon put his participation in doubt too. “I wouldn’t do it without [Greengrass] but I don’t feel like he’s done with it totally,” Damon told Entertainment Weekly in 2009. “I think he’d change his mind if a good script came along.”

Neither Greengrass nor Damon returned for 2012’s “The Bourne Legacy,” which takes the franchise in a different Jason Bourne-less direction and sees Jeremy Renner play the new character, Aaron Cross. The film turned out to be the lowest-grossing entry in the series, so it made sense that the powers that be would make overtures to Damon and Greengrass to come back and play with this character again.

Of course, Damon was bourne again in 2016’s “Jason Bourne.” Sticking to his word, the actor returned to the film franchise when Greengrass did too. As it turns out, this is also the reason that Jeremy Renner’s “Bourne Legacy” never received a sequel. But is there yet another “Bourne” movie in Damon’s future? Never say never when it comes to Hollywood!

It’s unfathomable to think about “Fast & Furious” without Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto, but there were two movies in the series where he wasn’t the star of the show: 2003’s “2 Fast 2 Furious” and 2006’s “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.” The actor was offered more money than most of us will ever see in two lifetimes to return for the sequel, but he didn’t like the script. He also passed on the third film, though he agreed to make a cameo appearance at the end.

Years later, Diesel admitted he should have stuck around for the sequels in retrospect. “I would’ve said, ‘Don’t walk away from it just because the script sucked in “2 Fast 2 Furious” because there’s an obligation to the audience to fight, no matter what, to make that film as good as possible,’” Diesel said to Celebuzz. “Just walking away doesn’t help that saga at all. I might have had a little bit more patience or belief in the long term of it.” At the same time, he understood this was a strong message being sent to the decision-makers that he wasn’t about to sell out and accept whatever lackluster ideas they doled out for the franchise.

In 2009, Diesel returned for “Fast & Furious.” What sweetened the deal for him this time? He was given the opportunity to become a producer in the franchise and decide where the family’s story goes, such as space.

Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor is as important to the first two “Terminator” films as the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) itself. Plans for the third film went through multiple iterations — some involving the franchise co-creator James Cameron and others without him — but in the end, Hamilton said no to what would become 2003’s “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” because of Sarah’s fate. “They offered me a part,” she told MTV in 2009. “I read it and I knew my character arc was so complete in the first two, and in the third one it was a negligible character. She died halfway through and there was no time to mourn her. It was kind of disposable, so I said no thank you.”

Since the “Terminator” franchise timeline is about as flexible as a Cirque du Soleil performer, there was always the chance that Hamilton could return as Sarah in another film. While she lent her voice to 2009’s “Terminator Salvation,” she eventually made her comeback and played a key role in 2019’s “Terminator: Dark Fate.”

It wasn’t easy to convince her to return, though, as Hamilton revealed to Variety that she had apprehension and mulled over the decision for nearly two months. “I wasn’t sure if I wanted to,” she said. “I didn’t want it to look like a shameless money grab.” Thankfully, she did. Just don’t expect Hamilton to appear as Sarah again, as she has confirmed that she’s done with the franchise now.

The magic of the first two “Thor” films involves Chris Hemsworth’s Thor building a relationship with Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster. For all intents and purposes, they’re star-crossed lovers: He’s the God of Thunder and she’s a human; this romance should never ever work, but it does.

Despite Portman’s character being relatively popular among fans and her reputation as an A-list actor, she disappeared from the Marvel Cinematic Universe after 2013’s “Thor: The Dark World,” with even her own comments suggesting she was all but done with the franchise. It took almost a decade until she returned in 2022’s “Thor: Love and Thunder,” where Jane picks up Mjolnir and becomes the Mighty Thor. Portman wasn’t even too perturbed about Jane’s absence in 2017’s “Thor: Ragnarok,” explaining to Entertainment Tonight that it made logical story sense, since the film took place on Asgard and other planets, while Jane was on Earth.

As it turns out, all it took for Portman to come back to the MCU was Marvel Studios approaching her with an interesting idea for her character’s arc and the allure of lifting Mjolnir. Considering the fate of Jane in “Thor: Love and Thunder,” though, it appears that Portman is now well and truly done with the franchise, unless Jane is somehow revived in the future. Hey, this is the comic book world — is anyone ever really dead forever here?

By the time that 1999’s “The Mummy” arrived in cinemas, Rachel Weisz was no starry-eyed newcomer to the business. Yet, it’s fair to say that the role of Evelyn “Evy” Carnahan took her career to the next level and cemented her as a household name. Weisz returned to action for 2001’s “The Mummy Returns,” but she was nowhere to be found for 2008’s “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.” Instead, Maria Bello replaced Rachel Weisz in that “Mummy” movie.

There are disputes about why Weisz didn’t reprise her role as Evy. Director Rob Cohen stated that the actor didn’t want to play an older Evy who had an adult son, while Weisz’s rep stated that she didn’t want to leave her young child behind for an extended shoot in another country. Then, there was another rumor swirling around that Weisz didn’t like the script and bailed on the project. Regardless, that doesn’t change the fact that “Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” was the weakest entry in the trilogy.

Fortunately, Weisz received another chance to reprise the role of Evy, alongside Brendan Fraser’s Rick O’Connell, in a fourth “Mummy” movie. After the announcement that the new movie was in the works in 2025, Fraser told The Associated Press, “The [movie] I wanted to make is forthcoming. And I’ve been waiting 20 years for this call. Sometimes it was loud, sometimes it was a faint telegraph. Now? It’s time to give the fans what they want.”

You can’t deny that a major part of the MCU’s success is a result of Robert Downey Jr.’s sensational performances as Tony Stark/Iron Man. He became a critical part of every big storyline, and the way in which the character sacrifices his life in 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” gives him the ultimate hero’s death a decade and some change after kicking off the whole shebang.

Downey had been considering how to exit the franchise for a while, but even the Russo brothers admitted RDJ had trepidation about his character’s fate in “Endgame.” “We did pitch Robert his arc, because he kicked off the entire MCU,” Anthony Russo told The Hollywood Reporter. “The Tony Stark arc is the longest and perhaps fullest in the MCU.”

After wrapping up “Endgame,” RDJ admitted his time in the MCU was officially over. However, in 2024, it was revealed he’d be donning the mantle of Doctor Doom in “Avengers: Doomsday.” According to the actor’s comments on the “Awards Chatter” podcast, his return was thanks to an intriguing pitch from Marvel Studios head honcho Kevin Feige. “He brought up Victor von Doom, and I looked into this character, and I was like, ‘Wow…’” Downey said. “And later on, [Feige] goes, ‘Let’s get Victor von Doom right. Let’s get that right.’” And the rest, as they say, is history.

There’s no “Scream” without Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott. She’s the franchise’s final girl, successfully outsmarting the different Ghostface killers over the years. Even though the franchise pivoted to focus on Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) in 2022’s “Scream,” Sidney still plays a part in the story. That wasn’t the case for 2023’s “Scream 6,” though. Neve Campbell provided a brutally honest explanation why she turned down “Scream 6,” revealing that she felt shortchanged and disrespected by the money on offer. So, yeah, it was a case of “thanks but no thanks.”

Then, it was the curious case of 2026’s “Scream 7,” which went through a litany of pre-production changes, including the merry-go-round of directors and the controversial departures of Barrera and Ortega. The only good that came out of this is that the original “Scream” writer Kevin Williamson boarded the project, as director and co-writer of the screenplay along with Guy Busick, and the “Scream 7” team convinced Campbell to reprise her role as Sidney.

Campbell broke the news on her Instagram account in March 2024, adding, “My appreciation for these films, and for what they have meant to me, has never waned. I’m very happy and proud to say I’ve been asked, in the most respectful way, to bring Sidney back to the screen and I couldn’t be more thrilled!”