Why Disney Replaced John Lithgow As Hades In Hercules

In the vast pantheon of Disney villains, Hades from 1997's "Hercules" remains a fan-favorite in no small part due to the charismatic vocal performance of actor James Woods. It's practically impossible to imagine Disney's take on the Lord of the Underworld without his quick, witty banter and short temper. However, Hades wasn't always like this, and it wouldn't be until actor John Lithgow took a stab at the character that the team decided to change direction. 

Initially conceptualized as a more straightforward adversary, the crew had high hopes of getting Jack Nicholson to voice the character. Despite a successful pitch meeting at Walt Disney Animation Studios which saw Nicholson excited to join the project, disagreements regarding his salary halted the "Batman" star from moving forward with the film. After testing out several other performers, two-time Oscar nominee John Lithgow was brought on board in 1994 as Hades' voice.

Sadly, despite Lithgow's best efforts, his voice ultimately failed to fit alongside the test animation of Hades done by Nik Ranieri, the character's supervising animator. The team labored for several months trying to find a solution but nothing worked and Lithgow was let go from the film in August 1995. Thankfully, following a successful audition, James Wood was brought in to voice Hades less than two years before the movie's scheduled release date. 

Lithgow got his happy ending too, as his voice was later used to bring a villain to life in another animated production that would go places no Disney fairytale had before.

As disappointing as it might have been for John Lithgow to be let go from playing Hades in "Hercules," it wouldn't take long for him to take center stage as an animated antagonist in 2001's "Shrek." The computer-animated comedy would see Lithgow play the deviously diminutive Lord Farquaad, who sends Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) out to retrieve Princess Fiona (voiced by Cameron Diaz).

Not only was performing Farquaad a fun time for Lithgow, but he had great respect for the film's artistry. Speaking with GQ, he shared his experience of visiting the animation team a year before the film's release. "I was the only actor who had ever visited them and I walked through this place ... to all these computer cubicles where all these animators were working,"  Lithgow said. "One was in charge of nothing but milk being poured out of a pitcher into a glass. One was in charge of only leaves blowing in the wind. One was in charge of mud when a wheel went through the mud ... working on this for months in this technology that not many people had used yet. And I suddenly realized, I am something history-making and I didn't even know it." And history-making it was.

"Shrek" went on to earn over $492 million worldwide and took home the first-ever Academy Award for best animated feature, managing to even beat out Pixar's "Monsters Inc," while also being the first animated film to receive a nomination for best adapted screenplay. Lithgow may have missed out on the moderately successful "Hercules," but it's safe to say that what he got instead far exceeded his expectations.