Marty McFly's Replacement: The Untold Story of Eric Stoltz's Casting in Back to the Future

In 2025, a new book about the making of the 1985 sci-fi classic Back to the Future is set to be released. One of the key figures in the film's history, Eric Stoltz, who was originally cast as the time-traveling teen Marty McFly, declined to participate in the book. However, Stoltz, now 64 years old, agreed to meet with Michael J. Fox, the actor who ultimately replaced him several weeks into filming.

Fox, who is a big fan of Stoltz's work, particularly in the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction, describes their meeting as "a great conversation" between "two guys talking." The two actors realized they had previously auditioned together for another movie, The Lords of Discipline, in the early days of their careers.

Despite the "mythology" surrounding Stoltz's replacement, Fox says there was no "backstabbing" or "evil" involved, just the natural progression of the filmmaking process. Both actors have since moved on and become friends, with Fox praising Stoltz as a "wonderful actor" and someone he's had a "good time with, talking about this turn in our lives and how we both ended up in different places."