21 Actors Who Were Set To Be THE Next Big Thing And Then Surprisingly "Fizzled Out," Sometimes For Dark Reasons

Recently, redditor u/UnlikelyFig2822 posed the question , "Which up-and-coming Hollywood actors fizzled out?" to the people of r/popculturechat . Here are their top responses:

1. " Taylor Lautner disappeared from the screen after the Twilight movies ended."

2. "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. He was recently great in Peaky Blinders and Daisy Jones , though, so hopefully he’ll get more projects!"

3. "Alex Pettyfer! He starred in Beastly and Magic Mike but allegedly had issues with Channing Tatum on the set of Magic Mike . His movie I Am Number Four flopped, and rumors were swirling that he was difficult to work with on set."

4. "I think if you ask the average person, Liam Hemsworth's most notable role was as Miley Cyrus’s boyfriend, husband, and then ex. A close second is Gale in The Hunger Games . I feel like in the beginning, he was marketed as a new heartthrob, but he’s just very…blah. Nothing particularly charismatic about him on- or offscreen."

5. "Shailene Woodley was supposed to be the next Jennifer Lawrence, but her career tanked right alongside Divergent when the YA adaptation bubble burst."

6. "Larisa Oleynik! She just kind of disappeared. I think she was in Mad Men for a hot second?"

7. "Sara Paxton. They put her in everything in an effort to make her the next big thing."

8. "I thought Mia Wasikowska was gaining traction in the early 2010s, but I haven’t seen her in much since."

9. "Skeet Ulrich had crazy hype after Scream , and then he completely fizzled out."

10. "I've always liked Taylor Kitsch as an actor. He seems to have worked semi-steadily, so I wonder if the 'fizzle' is partly of his own choosing? He was in Lone Survivor , True Detective Season 2, Waco , The Terminal List , and now Painkiller ."

11. "Dane DeHaan. Someone in another thread today mentioned how every young up-and-coming white male actor always gets compared to Leonardo DiCaprio. I remember when Dane was starting out and had been in Chronicle and The Place Beyond the Pines ; he got compared to Leo around then. After The 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 not being in the movie much. It made me wish he had become a bigger star."

12. "This was over a decade ago, but Brandon Routh was supposed to be huge — like, the next Tom Cruise — but I haven’t heard much about him since Superman Returns ."

13. "No one mentioned Theo James yet?? Glad he’s getting more attention after White Lotus Season 2!"

14. "I’d like to argue for 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 Kenobi show, so I hope he’ll be seen and cast a lot more now."

15. "I loved AnnaSophia Robb, but I haven't heard much about her since The Carrie Diaries ."

16. "Josh Hartnett had a great run and then just vanished. I saw an interview not too long ago where he said he felt magazines overhyped him and disrupted his career."

17. "Eliza Dushku — I thought she was going to be huge, but she kind of disappeared!"

18. "Wentworth Miller. Apparently he struggled really hard with depression and living in the closet, and Prison Break didn’t help. He had to break from acting to get a good frame of mind again."

19. "Maybe it's me living under a rock, but I feel like Felicity Jones was on track to be super A-list but then just disappeared."

20. "Josh Hutcherson disappeared after Hunger Games. I was wondering what happened to his career after the last movie, but someone told me they read in an 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.

21. Finally: "Isla Fisher. I feel like she was making bank in her 30s, and now she's at that age when Hollywood won't work with her because she's not a bubbly young thing, but not quite old enough to play an older woman. Obviously, women aren't allowed to age in Hollywood 🙄."

Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.

Now it's your turn! Who was an up-and-coming actor you think "fizzled out"? Tell us in the comments below!