Denzel Washington’s critically acclaimed American Gangster, with a score of 81 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, featured a star-studded cast, but a key actor swap changed the movie’s dynamic entirely. In the 2007 thriller with an 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes, Washington played a renowned drug lord, Frank Lucas, who was targeted by smaller gangs for his monopoly on the drug trade. Trying to catch him for his crimes was a detective named Richie Roberts. In the movie, Detective Roberts was played by Russell Crowe, but as it turns out, he easily could have been portrayed by someone else.
https://screenrant.com/denzel-washington-american-gangster-benicio-del-toro-casting-plan-different/
