It's a dog-eat-dog world out there, and that's even more true in Hollywood. Actors will step on whoever they can in order to get ahead.

However, some actors feel as though they're just too good for certain roles or specific movies. Some have gone as far as to leave entire franchises behind, only for those franchises to have massive success in the future.

Thanks to AskReddit, we've collected 15 of the most insane actors who decided to leave their respective franchises. Just be glad you aren't these people.

Benjamin Bratt. He left Law and Order to capitalize on his "stardom", hasn't been in much since The Cleaner and Miss Congeniality. -mrsvongruesome

Not exactly the same as your question but Sean Connery turned down the role of Gandalf for $30M +15% of profits which would have got him about $450M. He said he didn't understand the script. So next time he was offered a script he didn't understand (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) he took it, ended up so disappointed in the product that he retired from acting. -peon2

He didn't fade into obscurity, but imagine being Edward Norton and turning down the offer to reprise the Hulk role right before Avengers would go on to become massive. -Alcopath

Gina Carano from The Mandalorian. -DadshipSeries

Brian Dunkelman was co-host of Season 1 of American Idol with Seacrest, and then quit. Over the years it has toggled back and forth between whether or not he would have been fired anyway, but in at least one interview he admitted to quitting and then almost becoming suicidal over it. -mxcumstein

Chuck Woolery left Wheel of Fortune only to see Pat Sajak host it for over 40 years. -wehotex1

Remember when Katherine Heigl was nominated for an Emmy, and she withdrew herself from the nominees because she felt the writing hadn't been good enough? -_Ishmael

Ja Rule was in the first Fast and Furious movie. -windingtime

Lacey Chabert left Family Guy and was replaced by Mila Kunis who has made bank between new episodes and syndication. -DeviceAdventurous786

The actor who played Mark Brendanawicz from Parks and Rec. -Freeexotic

Shia LaBeouf punted both Transformers and Indiana Jones franchises. Could’ve been the face of two giant franchises and he said “Nope.” -RandyMJones

Marcus Chong was "Tank" in The Matrix. Main character in a HUGE franchise. He had all of these big ideas about how the movie should be done and how his character should progress. That's fine, but he wouldn't stop pushing them on the directors and producers. When it came time to make Matrix 2 he was not invited back.

Dude could have literally just shut up, been cool and thankful, and made huge bank and a bigger career. -RedditWhileImWorking

Katie Holmes took a pass on The Dark Knight to go be in a movie called Mad Money… and like you, I haven’t seen it either. -vince_irella

Terrence Howard was in Iron Man 1 and was going to become War Machine... This was the very start of the Marvel movies, the MCU. He got bounced I think for asking for crazy money... Don Cheadle replaced him for Iron Man 2 and all the movies beyond. -daithisfw

Late to the party but Stuart Townsend was the original casting for Aragorn in the LOTR movies, but during preproduction and rehearsals he refused to practice things like swordplay, horse riding, action choreography etc, always responding "You'll get it on the day." Peter Jackson decided he couldn't work with him, Viggo is brought in literally on the first day of shooting and the rest is history. -kodman7