Dream Casting: Back to the Future

Dream Casting is an imaginative look at the casting process of potential Hollywood projects based on comics and other media. This isn't just about what is being made; this is about what should be made, and who we think should be the stars.

A lot of people hate remakes, but honestly I think they're pretty fun. If a remake is bad the original still exists, and if it's good there are two versions to enjoy. With all the remakes going on these days, it's easy to imagine that someone might take a new pass at Back to the Future, so I thought it would be fun to put together a cast for that.

In imagining the remake, I've made some pretty substantial changes from the original, but I think it could work. This version of Marty McFly is a college student who travels back in time from 2019 to 1989, and has to make sure that her parents fall in love so that they can eventually adopt her, because if they don't who knows what situation she'll end up in.

I don't if the time machine should still be a modified DeLorean. Maybe it's a Smart Car now. I do know that when Marty emerges from it in the past, Tim Burton's Batman and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing will be on the movie theater marquee (if it takes place anytime from late June 1989).

It was hard to figure out the proper ages of most of the cast, thanks to the time travel element, but if they could make it work with 1985 makeup effects, I'm sure today's special effects can make it happen.

Kiersey Clemons (Hearts Beat Loud) is still at the very beginning of her career, but she has what it takes to be a big star and could absolutely carry a movie like this with her Michael J. Fox-level charisma.

Tig Notaro (Star Trek: Discovery) doesn't have the same manic energy as Christopher Lloyd, but her Doctor Emma Brown will be a different sort of oddball. She certainly has the comedic talent to carry that off.

Marty's girlfriend Jennifer doesn't have very much to do in this movie, but pop star/actress Hayley Kiyoko (Five Points) is always fun to have around, so hopefully she won't be recast for the sequel this time around (the way Claudia Wells was with Elisabeth Shue).

Alia Shawkat (Search Party) is one of the most underrated comedic actresses of the last decade and she'll put a whole new spin on both the younger and older versions of Marty's mom.

Kristen Stewart (Lizzy) has a bit of the same weird awkward charisma as Crispin Glover, but obviously there will be big differences, too. For one thing, her dynamic with Marty in the past will be very different since they're both lesbians.

Perhaps the most radical reimagining of all the characters, Tiffany 'Tiff' Bannon is less of a violent brute and more of a manipulative Mean Girl. Nevertheless, she still bullies one of Marty's moms while trying to get with the other one, so she serves the same function in the story. Amber Heard (Aquaman) is just the actress for the part.

Strickland is a hardnosed Women's Studies professor who manages to butt heads with Marty in the present and Georgia in the past. Wanda Sykes (Black-ish) is funny in everything, and she's great at playing hard-nosed.