Here’s why Ares was recast with a different actor for the 2012 sequel Wrath Of The Titans. The original Clash Of The Titans is a classic, old-school adventure movie from 1981 that features amazing stop-motion effects from the late, great Ray Harryhausen. The story drew from Greek mythology and put hero Perseus through various trials, which included fighting the Medusa and the Kraken. While the dialogue may be a tad stilted it boasted quite a classy cast, including Laurence Olivier and Maggie Smith. While the movie was a hit, a planned sequel didn’t happen.

Sam Worthington led the Clash Of The Titans remake in 2010, which reimaged the story with slick new CGI effects. While the film was a big hit in its day, it received terrible reviews for its murky 2D to 3D conversion, which has now become part of its legacy. While reviews for the movie itself were mixed it did sport a talented cast, including Gemma Arterton, Danny Huston, Ralph Fiennes and Mads Mikkelsen. Of course, it didn’t take long for a Clash Of The Titans sequel to be mooted.

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The planned Clash Of The Titans 2 first had to overcome the loss of original director Louis Leterrier and Gemma Arterton, neither of whom were interested in another go around following disappointment with the 2010 film. Wrath Of The Titans later cast Édgar Ramírez as Ares, the God of War and son of Zeus (Liam Neeson). Ares teams with his uncle Hades (Fiennes) and is essentially the sequel’s main villain. Ares actually appeared in Wrath Of The Titans too, played by another actor.

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In Clash Of The Titans, Ares was portrayed by Tamer Hassan, who previously appeared in the likes of Batman Begins, and had worked with Leterrier on Jet Li action movie Unleashed. It’s easy to miss Ares even being in the first movie, however, as he is barely seen and has little dialogue. No official reason was given for the role being recast, but as Édgar Ramírez’s star was on the rise at the time and the part of Ares was much larger than in Wrath Of The Titans, perhaps the studio wanted a more recognizable star.

It’s also possible that Tamer Hassan was booked elsewhere, as in 2011 – when Wrath Of The Titanswas being shot – the prolific actor appeared in no less than eight movies. The sequel did underwhelming business and a third Titans movie – reportedly to be titled Revenge Of The Titans – was cancelled in the aftermath.

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Padraig Cotter
(3486 Articles Published)

It’s pronounced Paw-rick, not Pad-raig. Now that’s out of the way, a brief introduction. Padraig has been writing about film online since 2012, when a friend asked if he’d like to contribute the occasional review or feature to their site.

A part-time hobby soon blossomed into a career when he discovered he really loved writing about movies, TV and video games – he even (arguably) had a little bit of talent for it. He has written words for Den of Geek, Collider, The Irish Times and Screen Rant over the years, and can discuss anything from the MCU – where Hawkeye is clearly the best character – to the most obscure cult b-movie gem, and his hot takes often require heat resistant gloves to handle.

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He’s super modern too, so his favorite movies include Jaws, Die Hard, The Thing, Ghostbusters and Batman. He can be found as i_Padds on Twitter making bad puns.

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