10 Actor Comebacks Nobody Saw Coming

As a certain Italian stallion once mumbled

Ain't nothing over till it's over. And in the case of these returning acting sensations

they all definitely were not ready to hang it up, and went on to produce the sort of unexpected comebacks

that Rocky Balboa himself would have been proud of. I'm Gareth here from WhatCulture.com

and here are actor comebacks nobody saw coming. Ben Affleck After slowly turning himself into one of Hollywood's new leading men

in the time post-Good Will Hunting, A string of box office disasters appeared to derail Ben Affleck's promising career

So after the critically panned outings that were 2003's Daredevil, Jiggly and Payback

Affleck ultimately decided to turn his attention to directing a few years later

His first flick, Gone Baby Gone, was adored by critics. But it was crime thriller The Town and historical drama Argo

that really announced the once downtrodden thespian as one of the hottest directors in the business

And before long, he was surprisingly once again lifting Academy Award gold and even stepping back into the superhero genre, this time as the Batman

Not even a rather turbulent time as the caped crusader and his very public struggles with addiction could keep this resilient artist down though

With Affleck returning from rehab in 2018 to eventually star in the likes of The Wayback and The Tender Bar

before directing and appearing in the well-received Nike Air Jordan biographical drama Air..

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Cameron Diaz. Despite being classed as the highest paid actress over 40 just a few years earlier

the megastar that is Cameron Diaz decided she'd had enough of Hollywood in 2018

and you can't blame her. After decades of non-stop traveling and starring in everything from The Mask

to Shrek, not sure why I went for both the green ones there, Diaz would eventually tell Kevin Hart

on his heart-to-heart show that it was simply time for the star to make her life manageable by me

instead of having various parts of it handed off to other people. And it honestly looked like the chances of a sensational Diaz return one day

were rather slim after the actor told Sirius XM's Quarantined with Bruce in 2021

that she couldn't imagine being a mother who spends 14 to 16 hours away

from their young child shooting on a flick. But then, in a move that just about nobody saw coming

Diaz suddenly made a retirement U-turn a year later. Reuniting with Annie co Jamie Foxx Hayden Christensen Hayden Christensen work as Anakin Skywalker slash Darth Vader was repeatedly criticized by fans and critics alike at the time of the prequel release

Something that didn't exactly help the youngster when he pursued projects post-Galaxy Far Far Away

A number of flops or critically panned releases came next in the years that followed his initial run as the Fallen Jedi

and it got to the point where the star of Jumper, Awake and Virgin Territory

simply decided to step away from the industry for a bit to work on his farm instead

Christensen would ultimately tell the LA Times that if I can come back afterward and claw my way back in

then maybe I'll feel like I earned it, after noting how he felt like he'd simply been handed opportunities after Star Wars

Then after making the odd forgettable film here or there over the next few years

A vocal cameo in The Rise of Skywalker was shockingly followed by a sensational small screen return

as both Skywalker and Vader in Disney Plus's Obi-Wan Kenobi series. And Christensen's terrific work as Vader slash Skywalker now looks set to remarkably continue

with the comeback king once again dusting off Anakin's boots in the Ahsoka series

But what's been your favorite Star Wars project of the Disney era? Was it Obi-Wan Kenobi or something else

Well, you let me know in that comment section right down below. Matthew McConaughey

This charming Hollywood heartthrob was enjoying a pretty successful career throughout the 2000s

regularly being found with his top off and flirting his way through the likes of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

and failure to launch. But this all led to the mighty Matthew McConaughey being somewhat typecast

So towards the end of the decade, the star told his agent to only send him small budget scripts that weren't in any way glamorous

And what came next was something ultimately referred to as a wonderful and rather unlikely McConaissance

After smashing it in features like the late William Friedkin's Killer Joe

McConaughey once again proved he possessed some serious acting chops with his displays in Magic Mike and Morda

But all that stellar work was merely setting the stage for a 2013 that would cement the star as Hollywood's new go-to dramatic talent

with his scene-stealing work on the Wolf of Wall Street, an Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club

completing one of the most extraordinary comebacks of recent times. All right, all right, all right

Winona Ryder Throughout the late 80s and 90s, The Heathers, Edward Scissorhands, and Little Woman Thespian

was one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood. However, Winona Ryder would later admit that she felt depressed during that latter decade

also noting how she was wrongly looking at the industry to validate herself

as a person at the time. In 2001, Ryder was then arrested

for shoplifting worth of designer goods with police also finding a syringe and painkillers in her possession This all led to the star taking a few years off from the business

before gradually starting to remind folks why she was once seen as one of the most bankable names in the game

in the likes of Star Trek, Black Swan and HBO miniseries Show Me a Hero

And while an epic big and small screen comeback looked depressingly unlikely at the start of the century for this icon

Stranger Things most certainly happened, and Ryder hasn't looked back since. Michael Keaton

Now sure, this particular icon of the 80s and 90s still showed up in his fair share of films

in the time post-legendary Beetlejuice and Batman performances, but Michael Keaton largely stayed under the radar when appearing in a supporting capacity

in Herbie Fully Loaded, Cars, The Other Guys, and other 2000s and 2010s offerings

After spending years turning down various studio projects and claiming that he wanted to repaint himself, though

Keaton finally got the chance to do precisely that in the most surprising and compelling ways

Playing a faded Hollywood icon who was known mostly for his work as the superhero Birdman

Keaton's impressive turn as Rigan Thompson in Alejandro G. Inara 2's Birdman

led to the most unexpected of career resurgences. An Academy Award nomination later, this star soon began showing up in more Oscars Best Picture winners like Spotlight

and even produced one of the finest villain performances the MCU has seen to date in Spider-Man Homecoming

Let's just not talk about the Mobius stuff. He even got nuts again in The Flash. What a time to be alive, eh

Brendan Fraser This mummy, George of the Jungle and Encino Man superstar once felt like a leading man destined to remain on top

But in the wake of being the victim of an alleged sexual assault in 2003

Brendan Fraser would eventually note to GQ how he felt work withered on the vine in the years that followed the incident

On top of that horrendous experience, Fraser's body also began to break down after years of grueling stunts

with the star requiring numerous surgeries that resulted in him being in and out of hospital for nearly seven years

But then Darren Aronofsky ultimately came calling in the wake of Fraser's brilliant small screen work on The Affair, Trust, Titans

and Doom Patrol turning a few heads towards the end of the 2010s

What came next was a transformative and deeply moving turn as the morbidly obese English teacher Charlie in The Whale

and a once unthinkable Oscar win sealed an unexpected but well-deserved comeback for the ages

Nicolas Cage As Nicolas Cage himself would eventually admit to GQ, the phone stopped ringing for him after a string of rather disappointing box office performances

from the likes of Ghost Rider the Sorcerer Apprentice and Drive Angry So that issues in his personal life and the fact he was paying a month trying to keep his mother out of a mental institution left the face and raising Arizona actor in a position where he had to make certain straight films

throughout the 2010s just to keep himself from having to file for bankruptcy

Those who had understandably forgotten just how great this prolific talent could be on his day

were then given one hell of a reminder in 2021, when Cage unleashed one of his finest turns in years as a former chef turned truffle hunter in Pig

And in typical Cage fashion, the star chose to follow that well-received and unanticipated return to a quieter way of performing

with the outrageous unbearable weight of massive talent, playing multiple balmy versions of himself

While he technically never left, it's sure good to have this one-of-a-kind artist back in the spotlight, Robert Downey Jr

Another star who once looked like one of the most promising names in Hollywood

Robert Downey Jr.'s career ultimately stalled a few years on from his Academy Award-nominated work as the iconic Charlie Chaplin in 1992

The star was arrested for drug offences on a number of occasions during the 90s and early 2000s

He also spent time in prison, and it got to the point where this undoubtedly gifted but hugely troubled performer was pretty much unemployable

After stopping for a particularly disgusting burger from Burger King in 2003, the actor who'd struggled with addiction for years finally decided to commit to properly getting himself clean

From here, the performer who once seemed set to become yet another Hollywood tragedy, started to once again smash it in the likes of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Zodiac

With all that outstanding work leading to an Iron Man screen test that would change his life forever

And that brilliant MCU audition soon paved the way for RDJ, becoming one of the most successful actors of all time in the remarkable 15 years that followed

Kee Hee Kwan Kee Hee Kwan struggled so much to find work in the time after playing Short Round and Data in Temple of Doom and The Goonies respectively, he eventually decided to quit acting altogether

Then a film by the name of Crazy Rich Asians landed in theatres in 2018

and Kwan realised that, despite originally feeling he was at peace with his decision to leave acting behind

he wanted to return to being up there with them, after 20 years away from the front of the camera

So after inspiring so many up-and-coming Asian actors with his displays in the 80s

Kwan finally made one of the most heartwarming, surprising and impressive comebacks of recent times

in last year's Everything Everywhere All At Once. Picking up a damn Oscar in the process, baby

With Kwan now also appearing in the acclaimed recent American-born Chinese series

and Loki Season 2 as well, it looks like this returning talented force thankfully won't be disappearing again anytime soon