Brendan Fraser

In 1997, Brendan Fraser played George in the movie ‘George of the Jungle', directed by Sam Weisman.

But he didn't return for the 2003 sequel 'George of the Jungle 2'.

In a 2022 interview with Entertainment Weekly, ‘The Whale’ star explained: “I think 'George' got a remake, and they built a joke into it that the studio was too cheap to hire me, which wasn't inaccurate. I was approached. I can't remember what I was doing at the time, but I felt like I wanted to go do 'The Quiet American' instead with Michael Caine, and shoot the first Western film in Vietnam ever, directed by Phillip Noyce, to tell an infinitely American story. I'm always making diverse choices, and, hopefully, that keeps me and an audience interested."