Actors, it turns out, are only human. They make mistakes, say things they probably shouldn't and – we are reliable informed – maintain the right to change their minds.
And so harsh words directed towards a particular role doesn't always mean that we won't be seeing their faces again in the next blockbuster franchise instalment...
1. Daniel Craig – James Bond (Spectre)
What he said: When asked by Time Out if he could imagine doing another Bond movie, Craig said, "Now? I'd rather break this glass and slash my wrists. No, not at the moment. Not at all. That's fine. I'm over it at the moment. We're done. All I want to do is move on."
What happened next: After near-endless speculation, Craig was confirmed to be returning as 007 in the 25th Bond movie.
"There is no point in making excuses about it, but it was two days after I finished shooting the last movie," Craig told Stephen Colbert. "I went straight into an interview and someone said, 'Would you do another one?' And I went, 'No'. And instead of saying something with style and grace, I gave a really stupid answer."
2. Idris Elba – Heimdall (Thor: The Dark World)
What he said: Elba contrasted his reshoots for the second Thor movie unfavourably with Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
"I'd just done eight months in South Africa," he told The Telegraph. "I came to England and the day I came back I had to do reshoots on Thor 2. And in the actual scene my hair was different, my... I was like, 'This is torture, man. I don't want to do this'. My agent said: 'You have to, it's part of the deal'.
"Then there I was, in this stupid harness, with this wig and this sword and these contact lenses," he continued. "It ripped my heart out."
What happened next: Elba reported for duty on the set of Taika Waititi's Thor: Ragnarok, which at least sounds like it might be a bit more fun than the previous instalment. We're keeping our fingers crossed for you, Idris.
3. Gwyneth Paltrow – Pepper Potts (Iron Man 3)
What she said: "I don't think I like it anymore," said Paltrow, whose character was conspicuously absent from Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War.
She reluctantly confirmed to InStyle that she was contracted to reprise her role. "I think it's Avengers or Captain America, one of those."
What happened next: Paltrow made a surprise cameo at the end of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and seemed on good form. She also looked to be having fun shooting Avengers 4.
4. Robert Pattinson – Edward Cullen (Twilight)
What he said: Our favourite thing about the Twilight saga is far and away Pattinson's naked loathing of the entire project. His put-downs of the films are too many to list, such as the time during publicity for Breaking Dawn – Part One in which he admitted that, as a cinemagoer, he "would just mindlessly hate" the movies.
Here he is speaking with Empire way back in 2008, on his process for playing Edward: "The more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that's how I played him, as a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus, he's a 108-year-old virgin so he's obviously got some issues there."
What happened next: As the romantic lead (sorry, Taylor Lautner), Pattinson was no doubt contracted up to the eyeballs for all five films, and had no choice but to stick around until the bitter end.
Since those dark times, he has chosen to work with auteurs like Werner Herzog and David Cronenberg on small-to-medium budget movies that couldn't be further away from the heights of Twilight-mania.
5. Harrison Ford – Rick Deckard (Blade Runner)
What he said: When asked about the controversial voiceover ending that was he was made to record for the original Blade Runner release, Ford complained to SFGate that it was "not an organic part of the film".
Not that it mattered either way, as he then added: "I didn't like the movie one way or the other, with or without. I played a detective who did not have any detecting to do. In terms of how I related to the material, I found it very difficult. There was stuff that was going on that was really nuts."
What happened next: Of course, he'll be back in Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 as part of the classic character victory lap that is also taking in Han Solo and Indiana Jones.
"I think it's interesting to develop a character after a period of time — to revisit a character," he said during an IMAX preview event (via Variety). "It was a very interesting working with Denis, working with Ryan [Gosling]. It was very gratifying experience.
"The character is woven into the story that intrigued me," he continued. "There's a very strong emotional context – the relationship between Deckard and other characters I found fascinating."
6. Harrison Ford again – Han Solo (Star Wars)
What he said: Did we mention Han Solo? Ford's relationship to the legendary character is a complicated one, and he did speak excitedly about it in the beginning.
He has also been heard to say, "Three is enough for me. I was glad to see that costume for the last time," and has admitted (while dressed as a hot dog) that he wanted Captain Solo to be killed off in the original trilogy.
What happened next: Ford was summoned back out of the void with the rest of his original co-stars to fly the Millennium Falcon for one last time in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We can only speculate about who decided that Han should finally die in that movie.
And what about the Han Solo spin-off, in which Alden Ehrenreich will play the younger Han? Is he excited? "Not really."
7. Ryan Reynolds – Deadpool (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)
What he said: There's a happy ending to this feature – an actor who came back because he hated what the studio had done to a character he loved.
There's no question that Reynolds isn't totally committed to playing Deadpool. After all, his hit solo film was in development for a decade. But that doesn't mean he enjoyed playing the much-derided take on Wade Wilson in the much-derided X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
"It was a very frustrating experience," he told EW. "I was already attached to the Deadpool movie. We hadn't at that point written a script yet. [Wolverine] came along and it was sort of like, 'Play Deadpool in this movie or we'll get someone else to'. And I just said, 'I'll do it, but it's the wrong version. Deadpool isn't correct in it'.
"So we were in the middle of production, there were no writers, no anything [thanks to the 2007-08 writers strike]. Every line I have in the movie I just wrote myself because in the script we had, it said, 'Wade Wilson shows up, talks really fast'. I was like, 'What?! What am I supposed to do with that?'"
What happened next: Despite that disaster, Reynolds' dedication didn't waver. Deadpool finally came out in 2016 and the relatively small budget film remains Fox's most successful X-Men instalment. He'll be back next year for Deadpool 2.
