Adaptation Dye Job / Literature

• Harry Potter
• A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon)

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• May Welland in The Age of Innocence is a blonde (as well as blue-eyed), while Ellen Olenska is dark-haired. This is symbolic, as May is the "good girl", while Ellen is the "bad" one. But when the book was adapted for the screen, May was played by the brunette Winona Ryder, while Ellen was played by the blonde Michelle Pfeiffer.
• Most adaptations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland have Alice with blond hair, as per the original book illustrations. American McGee's Alice, on the other hand, gives her brown hair, which is actually more accurate to the real Alice Liddell.
• The title character of The Amazing Maurice is a ginger cat, but in the book he describes himself as "a sort of mucky tabby".
• The resident White Deer Park foxes in The Animals of Farthing Wood are the normal red-orange fox color in the books, but are blue-gray in the animated series — this is presumably so that they can be easily visually distinguished from the orange fox main characters.
• Animorphs:
  • Tobias from is described as blond at the beginning of the series. Then the model they hired to pose as him on the book cover turned up with brown hair, and the author started writing he has dirty-blond hair to make up for it. In the TV series adaptation, he has very dark brown hair. The 2020 graphic novel more accurately depicts Tobias as lighter haired but instead of dirty blond like the author said, he’s as brightly blond as his Love Interest Rachel.
  • Also in the graphic novels, Tom's hair is ginger instead of very dark brown, and Jordan's hair is blonde instead of brown.
• In the 2015-17 PBS TV film series of Anne of Green Gables, Diana Barry, rather than having Raven Hair, Ivory Skin and dark brown/"black" eyes, is an auburn-ish brunette.
• The eponymous character of Artemis Fowl has blue eyes initially. An eye swap with Holly in The Lost Colony gave him a hazel eye. In the (admittedly black and white) graphic novels his eyes are black.
  • Holly’s hair was described as auburn in the books, in the graphic novels she’s a brunette. #
• In Arthur, the title character's little sister D.W. wears a white blouse and light pink pantyhose, but in the post-Anthropomorphic Shift books her pantyhose are white and both them and her blouse have pink stripes. The stripes were presumably removed in the Animated Adaptation to cut down on animation costs, although the CGI movie Arthur's Missing Pal did bring them back.
• The Beast Player:
  • The second volume of the original Japanese novels describes Elin's hair as straw-colored. Itoe Takemoto depicts her with dark hair in the manga and the illustrations of the Aoi Tori Bunko versions of the novels. The anime gives her green hair to match her green eyes.
  • Itoe Takemoto depicts the Ahlyo with dark hair in the manga and the illustrations of the Aoi Tori Bunko versions of the novels. The anime gives them green hair to match her green eyes.
  • Itoe Takemoto depicts Shunan with grey hair in the manga. The anime gives him black hair instead.
  • The cover of Volume 7 of the manga depicts Damiya with red hair. In the anime, however, he has blonde hair just like his relatives.
• This has happened twice to Sophie from The BFG. In the book, she had long blonde hair. In the animated film, she had short red hair, and in the 2016 live-action adaptation, she has short brown hair.
• The film adaptation of Blood and Chocolate (1997) has multiple examples:
  • In the book Vivian describes herself as having "tawny" hair, which usually refers to a light golden-brown color. In the film, she's portrayed with lighter, unmistakably blonde hair.
  • Astrid is a redhead in the book but a blonde here (possibly to further establish her and Vivian as being related here).
  • In the book Aiden is dark-eyed and Gabriel has blue eyes, while in the film it's the other way around.
• In the original novel The Bonfire of the Vanities, Maria Ruskin is a mysterious, willowy brunette. In the movie, she's played by the very blonde and voluptuous Melanie Griffith.
• In the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's, Holly is blonde. The movie decides to make Holly brunette.
• In Bridge to Terabithia, Leslie is described as a brunette girl with Boyish Short Hair. The 1985 adaptation keeps this, however the 2007 adaptation has her as a blonde with medium-length hair.
• Stephen King's Carrie:
  • Carrie White is described as having mousy hair that was blonde when she was a child. Brian De Palma cast redhead Sissy Spacek. The 2002 film cast brunette Angela Bettis — and her child self was a brunette too. Chloë Grace Moretz in Kimberley Pierce's 2013 film is closer to the original book.
  • Chris Hargensen is an olive-skinned brunette in the books, but Chris is played by blondes Nancy Allen and Emilie de Ravin. However the 2013 version had the naturally blonde Portia Doubleday dye her hair brown for the role.
  • Sue Snell is blonde in the books. In the 1976 film she's played by redhead Amy Irving. The 2002 film also gave the character a Race Lift and had her played by mixed race Kandyse McClure. She's blonde in the 2013 film.
  • Tina Blake is described as a redhead in the book. She's a brunette in both the 2002 and 2013 films.
  • Norma Watson is blonde and is played by blonde PJ Soles in the 1976 film. However, the 2002 film casts the brunette Meghan Black.
• Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is something of a Rummage Sale Reject with his Stage Magician-esque outfit: plum tailcoat, green trousers, grey gloves, black top hat. He also has black hair and a goatee. Most adaptations, including the two films, go with more color-coordinated costumes, and lose the black hair and goatee (often going with the actor's natural hair color instead, as with Gene Wilder in the 1971 film), possibly because the color and style are usually associated with villains. The 2013 stage musical, however, averts this.
• The Chronicles of Narnia:
  • It is mentioned several times in the books that Lucy Pevensie is blonde. She's a brunette in the films. Funnily enough, Georgie Henley's hair was apparently lightened for the film.
  • Prince Caspian was also a blonde in the books, but brunette in the film. Given the filmmakers decided give the Telmarines Mediterranean ancestry with hints they are descended from Spanish pirates, this change for Caspian is fitting.
  • Edmund and Peter, who have blond and dark hair respectively in the books, but their hair colors are reversed in the movie, Edmund being dark-haired and Peter fair-haired. The fans seemed to like the movie version better, due to Edmund's Anti-Hero status that fitted really well with his dark appearance, which was in contrast with the other Pevensie children, who were more fair. Skandar Keynes was chosen especially for Edmund's role, because the director considered him to be darker than his co-stars; Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette, mischievous, snarky and the facts that he wore more black and listened to heavier music created his Anti-Hero image on the spot.
    • Of the four Pevensies, the only one to keep her original hair color in the films is the dark-haired Susan -– the one who, in the books, eventually abandons Narnia for "lipstick and nylons and invitations." If the complete series had been adapted, as was presumably intended at first, this would have meant that the two lighter-haired siblings, Peter and Lucy, were ultimately the more purely good ones, while the two darker-haired ones, Susan and Edmund were the two darker characters, too. But as it turned out, the film series was cut short before it could reach Susan's fall from grace.
  • The Pauline Baynes illustrations, which were commissioned specially by Lewis himself and have been used in many editions of the text, portray Lucy with black hair and Susan with lighter hair, despite that Lucy is stated to be blonde, and Susan is black-haired.
  • The 1980s BBC adaptation also has a blondish-haired Peter and brunette Lucy. Its version of Susan is blonde, too.
  • In the manga adaptation, Peter has blonde hair, Susan has dark brown hair, Edmund has black hair and Lucy has strawberry blonde hair. Additionally in the preceding manga of The Magicians' Nephew, Diggory has blonde hair and Polly has ginger hair, unlike the Pauline Baynes illustrations of the book where Diggory is brown haired and Polly is blonde.
  • The White Witch is an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette in the books, but a platinum blonde in the Disney film series.
• In Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain, Princess Eilonwy is a redhead and Fflewddur Fflam was described as having "straw-colored hair." The Disney version made her blonde in all sense of the word while ageing him thirty years and giving him white hair.
• Cloud Atlas: Sonmi-model fabricants are implied to have white hair in the novel; in the film they have black hair with a few streaks of bright color.
• Red headed Nicole Kidman played originally dark-haired character Ada Monroe in the film version of Cold Mountain.
• Conan the Barbarian has black hair. While this is kept in the comics and the cartoon, his most famous portrayer in the movies Arnold Schwarzenegger has brown hair.
• Coraline:
  • Not much is said about Coraline's appearance in the book, except that she has hazel colored eyes, is short for her age, and has brown hair. In the movie her eyes are the same as in the book, she has freckles on her face, she is rather tall for her age, her hair is short and blue, and she always wears blue nail polish. There's a blink and you'll miss it shot of a photo showing Coraline with brown hair, implying she dyed it.
  • Coraline in the graphic novel has parted light brown hair that goes past her shoulders. In most official illustrations of the book Coraline has darker hair in a bob haircut, though the length varies.
• In Death on the Nile Jacquie is brunette and Linnet is blonde, in the 1978 film Jacquie is played by the famously redhaired Mia Farrow and Linnet played by Lois Chiles who is brunette. The 2022 adaptation has Jacque and Linnet played by Emma Mackey and Gal Gadot respectively who are both darker haired. In the BBC Poirot series adaptation of Death on the Nile, they are accurately played by brunette and blonde actresses.
  • Speaking of Poirot, what little hair he has in book including his mustache is dark. In the 1978 film, played by Peter Ustinov he's got fair hair and likewise the Kenneth Branagh version of Poirot has lighter hair and a grey mustache. Averted for the Albert Finney and David Suchet who are more accurate to the books.
• In Deltora Quest, Jasmine was described as having black hair, but has green hair in the Anime. Similarly, Lief was assumed to be a brunet, but became blond-haired in the Anime.
  • On the same note Doom has green hair as well, just in case it wasn’t super obvious he and Jasmine were related.
• It's not mentioned often in the novel, but in The Devil Wears Prada Andrea is blonde. In the movie she is played by the dark-haired Anne Hathaway.
• Divergent: In the books, Tris, Four, and Caleb have blue-gray, dark blue, and green eyes, respectively. They are all changed to brown in the films. Tris' pale blonde hair is also darker in the films.
• In Dracula the brides are described as one blonde and two brunettes. Many adaptations change one of the brunettes to a redhead to enforce the Blonde, Brunette, Redhead trope.
  • Lucy was implied to be blonde in her the book by making mention of hair being “sunny ripples” on the pillow. Sadie Frost who played Lucy in Francis Ford Coppola adaptation had red hair.
  • It’s generally considered Mina had darker hair and most adaptations agree. However Mina was depicted with redhair in Dracula: Dead and Loving It, in the comic adaptation drawn by Dick Giorando she’s blonde and she’s also blonde in Hellsing... and a teenage girl.
• The Dresden Files:
  • In the original book version, Murphy is a tiny blonde. In the TV adaptation, she's a tall brunette. She was Irish-heritaged in the novels and described as the cheerleader's younger sister or some such nonsense. In the series, she was Mexican-heritaged and not at all as cute as the book version was.
  • Susan and Murphy look like each other's book counterparts because the actresses were determined to be much better for each other's roles than the roles for which they were initially cast.
• In the original novel Emmanuelle: Pleasures of a Woman, Bee is described as an extremely slender redhead. In the film adaptation, she was portrayed as a voluptuous blonde.
• In Endo and Kobayashi Live! The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte, Siegwald's hair is described as platinum blond, which is followed by the manga adaptation. The Animated Adaptation, however, changes it into golden blond, which induces a Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: the titular Lieselotte, which is his fianceé, uses the color white to represent him, which cease to make sense in the anime.
• The Faraway Paladin: William's hair is described as "chestnut brown" in the text of the novels, but the illustrator gave him red hair. The manga adaptation gave him brown hair, while the anime went with red. Also, his eyes are described as blue-green in the novels, but the manga gives him red eyes and the anime makes them topaz-colored.
• Grandmother in Flowers in the Attic has grey hair in the books (and it turns out to be a wig) but is red-haired in the film.
• Freak the Mighty: Freak has blond hair in the book and brown hair in the movie, while his mother Gwen has brown hair in the book but blonde hair (since she's played by Sharon Stone) in the movie.
• The blue eyes linked to seeing beyond in The Giver are not mentioned in the film, and the indicator is instead a Birthmark of Destiny. Although Taylor Swift and the babies who play Gabe retain their paler eyes, Jonas has brown eyes instead of blue.
• In the movie version of Going Postal, Vetinari is blond. This is a strange example though; his hair color isn't mentioned specifically in the books but the general assumption is that he has dark hair and the illustrations certainly show that. So even if it wasn't actually a contradiction, it was still weird for many readers to see a blond Vetinari. (Especially as he was dark haired in the previous movie.)
• Averted with the casting of Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara — despite the numerous references to Scarlett's black hair, a number of blonde and redheaded actresses were considered for the role, but ultimately they went for a dark-haired woman. Played straight with her eye color, however: Leigh's eyes were blue, whereas O'Hara's were green. The filmmakers made some bad attempts to disguise this, though.
• Good Omens (2019): Crowley, who's described as "dark-haired" in the book and has black hair in virtually all illustrations and covers, is given bright red hair in the TV adaptation.
• Goosebumps:
  • Hannah Fairchild has blonde hair in the books, is a redhead in the TV series and dark brown hair in the movies.
  • Speaking of brown hair, Carly Beth and Michael Webster are stated to have brown hair in their books but they're blonde in the TV series.
• Gossip Girl: Jenny was originally a brunette in the books. In the TV series, she is blonde.
• In most film versions of The Great Gatsby, Daisy will be blonde and Jordan will be brunette. It's the other way around in the book. Although Daisy's hair is described in contrasting terms in the book, either as fair or dark. She may dye hard, or it may symbolize her elusiveness.
• Green Eggs and Ham: Guy-Am-I's fur color is a bit darker compared to the original book, and his hat is dark brown.
• In the Hannah Swensen series, the titular character has been noted for her frizzy red hair and emerald-green eyes. In the Hallmark movies, though, she's casted by a blue-eyed blonde. She also has some Weight Woe, which was never transferred to the screen either.
  • Mike Kingston, one of Hannah's love interests, had reddish-blond hair, a mustache and blue eyes in the books. In the movies, he's a brown-eyed brunet.
• In The Hardy Boys:
  • Frank Hardy's hair is described as dark and usually drawn as black on the book covers. In the 1970s TV Adaptation The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, it's inexplicably golden-blonde.
  • The eye colors of both brothers also fall into this. In the books, Joe Hardy is blue-eyed. In The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries Frank has the blue eyes, Joe's hazel, and the show makes a special point of Frank's eye color in several episodes. Not that anyone's complaining, mind...
• Hatchet's Brian Robeson is depicted as a brunet on the book cover, but the 1990 TV film, A Cry in the Wild, makes him a blonde.
• Marisa Coulter is described as having black hair in His Dark Materials, but is played by blonde Nicole Kidman in the film of the book. Word of God is that Pullman liked this better anyway.
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy books:
  • Zaphod is blond and Ford is redheaded. In the TV series, they both have dark hair, and in the movie, Zaphod is blond again but Ford is played by Mos Def. (In the original radio serial, hair colours aren't mentioned, being rather irrelevant on radio.) Mark Wing-Davey, who played Zaphod on radio and TV, is quoted as saying that he said he thought Zaph was "a blond beach bum" (with the implication that he'd have been quite happy to wear a wig), but the producer/director (Alan Bell) wasn't listening to anyone involved in the radio show.
  • The illustrated book also has a dark-haired actor playing Zaphod. This gets lampshaded: the description of him as blond has a footnote added to it saying that anyone perceiving him as otherwise is probably suffering from Mad Human Disease.
  • In the book series, Trillian was described with dark hair. When the series came to television, she was played by blonde American Sandra Dickinson. This was done on advice of Douglas Adams himself, who liked Dickinson on the role.
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: The Grinch had white fur in the book (although this is debatable, as the only noticeable color in the illustrations besides black and white is red), but the 1966 cartoon gave him green fur, a trait which carried over to all future adaptations.
• In the Howl's Moving Castle book, Sophie has "reddish straw-colored" hair. In the animated movie, she has brown hair. Also, in the scene where Howl throws a fit because Sophie messed up all his hair potions, his hair was supposed to go from "mud" to the "reddish straw" thing (but pinker), but ended up getting from a yellow-blond to... wet-colored yellow-blond. Then to black because he throws a fit.
• In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Djali is white with glided horns. In the Burbank Films Australia adaptation, however, she is brown.
• The Hunger Games:
  • Katniss has dark brown hair in the first film, despite being explicitly raven-haired in the books, a characteristic of people from the Seam. Thanks to a change of director, she has her book-accurate black hair from Catching Fire onwards. (For the record, Jennifer Lawrence is a natural blonde). She also has blue eyes, whereas her book counterpart has gray eyes.
  • Other than Katniss, Gale and Haymitch are from the Seam, so they have black hair and gray eyes in the books. In the films, Gale is black-haired but has blue eyes, whereas Haymitch is blond-haired and blue-eyed.
  • On the flipside, the books' Peeta and Primrose have blond hair and blue eyes, typical of people from the town. In the films, they still keep their blonde hair but have brown eyes.
  • Buttercup the cat, named for the color of his coat, is for some reason black and white in the movie. This led to him being recast in the second movie.
• In I Am Not a Serial Killer, Brooke is a blonde but she is a brunette in the film.
• Inheritance Cycle:
  • Arya has black hair. In the movie, she inexplicably has blonde hair. This, when combined with her human features, makes it impossible to tell she is an elf (except for the fact that early in the film it is directly mentioned she is, which just reinforces the idea that otherwise, nobody would work that out). The changes of hair and ears were reportedly because the director feared a confusion with The Lord of the Rings' Arwen. Which is especially funny in the latter case, as Tolkien never said his elves had pointed ears in the published texts (the only hint comes from a tiny note in an etymological dictionary about his ConLangs).
  • Eragon. The books described him having brown hair and eyes, but in the movies, he is blond-haired and blue-eyed.
  • Murtagh is supposed to have brown hair in Book 1. In the movie they gave him black hair. In Book 3, his description backs up the movies.
• Inspector Tommy Lynley went from blond in Elizabeth George's novels to being played by brunet Nathaniel Parker in the TV series. Frumpy Sergeant Barbara Havers was given a complete upgrade in the casting of Sharon Small.
• Steven King’s IT, oh boy let’s start with the 1990 adaptation first.
  • Bill has red hair in the book, which is one of the reasons why the also red-headed Beverly is attracted to him. In the 90s version Bill is played by the late Jonathan Brandis who had light brown-blondish hair.
    • Bill was also balding as an adult in the book, but ironically has freaking a ponytail as a grownup in the 90s adaptation.
  • Beverly herself has pronounced red auburn hair in book with it being mentioned numerous times but both actresses who play her as a kid and adult are brunette. It gets even worse as Bill’s wife Audra has red hair like Bev in the book (which was the reason why Bill was attracted to her) but Audra has dark hair in the Miniseries.
  • Though he has darker hair in the book, Richie is the only one who has red hair thanks to being played by Seth Green as a kid but as an adult he becomes a brunet with a moustache which was not present in the book.
  • The titular Monster Clown is also subject to a dye-job as Pennywise’s clown suit is actually silver white in the book but Tim Curry’s clown suit in the Miniseries is yellow, green and purple. Though to be fair multi-colors are more common for Real Life clowns.
  • It (2017) is more accurate to book despite Bill again having brown hair instead of red, Pennywise’s clown suit is silver like in the book though his fluffy buttons are red instead of orange. Most importantly Beverly hair is redheaded at last, the only change being she cuts her red long hair to short red hair after her creepy dad strokes her hair; which is a good justification.
• James Bond has gotten this. In the books Bond is described as having black hair but the Roger Moore and Daniel Craig portrayals are lighter haired with the latter bordering on blonde. Also Bond also has "blue-grey" eyes in the books but Sean Connery and George Lazenby had brown eyes.
• Blanche Ingram is described as a dark beauty in Jane Eyre with black raven hair and olive skin. Several adaptations portray her as a blonde instead, presumably to contrast more with the brunette Jane.
• The TV series Jeeves and Wooster had a few instances of this. During the first season, the blonde Madeline Bassett was portrayed by a brunette. Both actresses who were cast as the platinum blonde Florence Craye were also brunettes. Finally, the hair of the actress who portrayed Bobbie Wickham during the first season could hardly be described as a vivid shade of red (or any shade of red unless you squinted really hard).
• In The Kite Runner, Assef is mixed race (Afghan and white German) and is stated to be blond. In the movie he has black hair. Him being blond is a minor plot point in the novel, since he is said to be a Nazi who thinks that he is superior. His Nazism is downplayed in the movie, however.
• In La dame aux camélias (aka Camille), Marguerite has black hair, like her real-life inspiration Marie Duplessis. The famous 1936 film version stars the honey blonde/golden brown haired Greta Garbo, the 1984 TV version has the same-named and similar hair-colored Greta Scacchi, Violetta's hair color in the opera La Traviata depends on the soprano, and in Moulin Rouge! (not quite a straight Camille adaptation, but clearly inspired by it) Nicole Kidman's Satine is a redhead.
• Land of Oz books:
  • Princess Ozma's hair is described specifically: "tresses of ruddy gold, with a slender jeweled circlet confining them at the brow." However, in John R. Neill's illustrations, her hair is either colored brown or black, aside from The Marvelous Land of Oz (where it's blonde). Whether this is intentional (to distinguish Ozma from the blonde Dorothy Gale) or simply a printer error is debatable, but most modern Oz fans, authors, and illustrators portray her with brown hair or, rarely, black. The "slender circlet" became much thicker in the illos, and was attached to a crown on top of her head. Ozma's hair was only described once, on her original (re)appearance. After that, well, maybe The Wizard Did It. Ozma was blonde in both Return to Oz and Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, but not a reddish blonde.
  • Dorothy may or may not count as an example in the classic 1939 film. Her hair color is never mentioned in the books: the original illustrator, W.W. Denslow, gave her light brown hair, but John R. Neill, as mentioned above, made her blonde. Onscreen, she's played by brunette Judy Garland with her hair dyed auburn. Since then almost all adaptations give Dorothy dark brown or auburn hair.
  • The slippers were silver in the original book; they were changed to red to take advantage of the new colour technology. Many other adaptations keep them silver, often became they're unable to use the more iconic red design due to copyright issues.
  • Glinda is described as a redhead, however in most adaptations besides the MGM film she is a blonde. In at least Wicked's cases this is because MGM has a veto on Glinda as a redhead. It works in their favor because Glinda is a subversion of the Dumb Blonde trope and also because it clashes her with the black haired Elphaba.
  • The Wicked Witch of the West has a Sickly Green Glow in the MGM film and most adaptations (including Wicked). In the books, it's never mentioned what her skin colour is, however she lives in the part of Oz where yellow is the main colour (and her castle in decked in yellow). Most likely, she has a yellow-based design. Official art for the books depict the Wicked Witch of the West with a normal, pale skin tone and a red-and-yellow outfit.
• Blond-haired Chloe Steele and Nicolae Carpathia from the Left Behind book series got darker hair in the films.
• Queen La from The Legend of Tarzan is actually given tanned skin and white hair in order to keep the fact that she is originally from Atlantis.
• Many adaptations of Les Misérables have someone who doesn't have the right hair colour as described in the book.
  • Valjean being an older man has grey hair that becomes white once he's Locked into Strangeness. While the original Broadway musical was accurate in this regard, the later adaptations such as the 1998 film, 2012 film musical and 2018 BBC series Valjean is played by the younger brown and dark-haired Liam Neeson, Hugh Jackman and Dominic West although the latter two have grey hair by the end. In the manga adaptation by ARAI Takahiro, Valjean has brown hair but is grey haired by the time he adopts Cosette.
  • Cosette should have dark hair, whereas in the 25th anniversary tour, the Broadway productions on current London stage and 2012 film she is blonde. A lot of productions do manage to use a blonde wig for Fantine though. Other adaptions such as the 2018 BBC mini-series, Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette and the aforementioned manga have her Cosette be blonde like her mother. And to be fair the iconic book illustration depicts Cosette as fair-haired as well.
    • The maligned 1998 film has Cosette be accurately brunette, despite the rest of film being pretty inaccurate to the book.
  • Enjolras should have blond hair, though many actors such as Michael Maguire or Lennie James do not.
  • Dark-haired Marius is a redhead in the 2012 movie adaptation.
  • Gavroche in Victor Hugo's own drawings has messy dark hair, while in the 2012 film he has messy blonde hair instead. The BBC series is more accurate, although like his father Thenardier, Gavroche has a darker skin tone.
  • Javert is dark haired in most adaptations, but is blonde in the aforementioned manga adaptation, the same manga has the usually dark haired Gavroche have ginger hair.
  • Fantine is changed from blonde to brunette in the 2012 musical being played by Anne Hathaway. In the 2018 BBC series, Fantine is brunette again. In the manga she's blonde the same as Cosette.
  • Eponine is dark-haired in most stage productions, the 2012 film and most other adaptations whereas Victor Hugo refers to the child Eponine as having chestnut/auburn hair, and describes her teenage self later in the story as having a "blonde pallor" –- though the latter description might only refer to her sallow complexion, not her hair. In the BBC series Eponine's hair does have a reddish chestnut color to it.
• Little Women:
  • The 1978 TV version changes both Meg and Beth from brunette to blonde. Instead of Amy standing out as the only blonde sister, Jo stands out as the only brunette one.
  • The 1980 anime version gives the brunette Jo blonde hair, the blonde Amy brown hair, the brunette Beth red hair, and the brunette Meg black hair.
  • The 2019 film gives both Jo and Beth different shades of strawberry blonde hair.
• Lord of the Flies:
  • Ralph is repeatedly described as "fair-haired". In both film adaptations he has dark hair.
  • Jack is a redhead, but in the 1990 adaptation he has sandy blond hair.
  • Simon's hair is black. In the 1963 adaptation the character has white-blond hair.
• The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit:
  • Boromir and Faramir are described as having dark hair. For the movies they were given light brown hair, bordering on blond. This is purely because they needed a way to make Boromir and the dark-haired Aragorn instantly visually distinguishable, and putting Boromir in a Viking helmet had been ruled out.
  • Gandalf is described as having a blue wizard hat in The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings and David Wenzel's painted graphic novel of The Hobbit and the 1978 animated The Lord of the Rings film gave Gandalf a blue hat accordingly, but in the film trilogy Gandalf has a grey hat. To be fair to the Peter Jackson films, it is more line with Gandalf's "grey" motif.
  • Saurman after his Face–Heel Turn in the book has his once white robe become a robe of many colors. In the films Saurman keeps the white robe as an example of Light Is Not Good while in the animated film he has a red robe which at one point flashes with different colors.
  • Gollum is described as "dark as darkness" in the books and has green eyes, in the films and The Hobbit graphic novel he's got pale skin with former also giving him blue eyes that can go from adorable to frightening in seconds due to his Split Personality. It's possible Gollum's skin tone was changed to avoid any racist undertones. In the animated films Gollum has got dark green skin.
  • Legolas has dark hair in the books rather than blond like the adaptations, depending on your interpretation. In fact, blond hair is rarely seen among the Elves of Middle-earth because it's a trait associated with the Vanyarin Elves, who almost exclusively live in Valinor (Galadriel's famous blond hair is inherited from her Vanyarin grandmother). Granted Legolas’s father Thranduil is explicitly described as having blond hair in The Hobbit, so his son having fair hair as well isn’t out of the question.
  • Sam and Merry both have fairly blond hair in the films, whereas in the books blond Hobbits are a rarity.
  • Frodo had blond hair in the books. This is even mentioned as a way to distinguish him from other hobbits, but in the films he got brunet hair that borders on black in some scenes.
  • Kíli in The Hobbit film trilogy has dark hair in contrast to the blond hair he originally shares with his brother Fíli in the book.
  • Tauriel's counterpart in the book (the unnamed captain of the Elven guard) is unlikely to have had red hair, going by Tolkien's lore.
  • Dwalin had a blue beard in the book, but has a dark brown beard in the films. The graphic novel gives Dwalin a dark brown beard as well.
  • Thorin has white hair and beard in the book being the oldest Dwarf besides Balin, in the Hobbit trilogy he's given a Age Lift to being younger and has black hair and beard instead.
  • Weapon example with the elvish swords Gandalf's Glamdring and Thorin's Orcrist, just like Bilbo's shortsword Sting in the books they glow in the presence of Orcs being forged in Gondolin. In the films only Sting glows around Orcs and Glamdring and Orcrist stay the same color. The DVD commentary for first the Hobbit movie confirms they removed Orcrist's blade glowing since it looked too much like a lightsaber, but no word on why Glamdring doesn't glow whether it was for a similar reason or just a production oversight.
    • The LEGO game adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit accurately have Glamdring and Orcrist glow same as Sting when Orc enemies around.
• H. P. Lovecraft:
  • He described Herbert West as being blond in the original story, Herbert West–Reanimator, but thanks to Jeffrey Combs's inimitable portrayal in Re-Animator, any work featuring him is bound to have him with brown hair (aside from the bizarre Humongous Mecha anime Demonbane in which it was green).
  • Charles Dexter Ward was blond, but both film adaptations give him dark hair.
• Matilda is a brunette in the book and film, but the musical's 2015-2016 US touring production had the blonde Mabel Tyler as one of the actresses playing her.
• In the adaptation of the E.M Forster story Maurice by James Ivory, Maurice is blond rather than dark-haired, even though (as David Leavitt wrote in his introduction to the 2005 Penguin Classics edition of the book) "Forster makes so much of Maurice's hair being black. For Forster, black hair connotes virility."
• In Maximum Ride both Max and Iggy were blonde (or in Max’s case occasionally brunette) but in Max Ride: First Flight they are both redheads.
• Mortal Engines:
  • Katherine Valentine was black haired in the book, but blonde in the film.
  • In the novel it's established that all of London's engineers are kept bald, and this includes Bevis Pod who in the film has black hair with grey flecks.
  • In a more fantastical example, the Cyborg Strike lacks the dreadlocks made out of cables that he had in the books.
• Happened to most characters from The Mortal Instruments to The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones:
  • In the books both Clary Fray and her mother, Jocelyn, have green eyes. In the film they have brown eyes, also their red hair is darker than described appearing almost brownish.
  • Jace Wayland has golden eyes in the book, but blue eyes in the film.
  • Simon Lewis has brown eyes in the book, but has green eyes in the film.
  • The Lightwood siblings went from having black hair in the books, to being brown-haired in the film. Also Isabelle’s eyes went from dark brown to blue.
  • Luke Garroway has blue eyes in the books and brown eyes in the film.
  • Emile Pangborn has grey hair in the books and black hair in the film.
  • Samuel Blackwell is a redhead in the books but black haired in the film.
  • Valentine Morgenstern has white-blonde hair and black eyes. In the film he has dark brown hair and blue eyes.
• The Mr. Men Show: In the original books, Mr. Quiet and Miss Magic were light brown and Mr. Lazy was light pink; in the show, Mr. Quiet is light blue, Mr. Lazy is green, and Miss Magic is orange.
• The manga adaptation of My Happy Marriage mentions Hazuki Kudo being a brunette. The anime depicts her as an ashen blonde like her younger brother, Kiyoka.
• Guinever in The Once and Future King is stated to have jet-black hair, even though the narrator admits that she is blond in almost all other versions of the Arthurian legends, including the author's source materials.
• Mei is pink in the All-CGI Cartoon anime of One Stormy Night instead of white.
• In Percy Jackson and the Olympians:
  • Annabeth was described as having curly blonde hair and gray eyes (a trait of Athena's children). In the first film, she's brunette and has very striking blue eyes (courtesy of Alexandra Daddario). This is because she is merged with the brunette Clarisse La Rue, Percy's Sitcom Archnemesis from the books. As a result, when Clarisse appears in the sequel, Annabeth inexplicably goes the books' blond.
  • Percy was supposed to have black hair and green eyes, but his eyes are blue in the films.
• The numerous adaptations of The Phantom of the Opera does this to the cast from the book, particularly Andrew Lloyd Webber's Broadway musical.
  • Christine became a brunette instead of a blonde, probably so Sarah Brightman could play her.
  • The Lloyd Webber musical wasn't the first version to invoke this: Mary Philbin, who played opposite Lon Chaney in the silent film, was also brunette.
  • The costume designer may have actually had the silent film in mind, given that both silent movie!Christine and her stage musical counterpart aren't just brunette, but have cascading frizzy curls.
  • Meg in the original novel was brunette and became a blonde in the musical.
  • All of the above applies only to the original Harold Prince/Maria Björnson production of the musical, as seen in London and on Broadway. In the Hungarian production of the show, Meg is sometimes brunette. Chrsitine is sometimes blonde. It all depends on the actresses.
  • Even the 1988 Phantom of the Opera animated film has Christine be brunette and the Persian's eyes which are explicitly referred to as "jade colored" in the book, are black in the cartoon.
  • Teri Polo, from the 1990 TV-miniseries is one of the few accurate physical portrayals of Christine in live action.
  • Christine is also accurately blonde in the Mobile Phantom of the Opera game by MazM. Although inexplicably she also has blue tips to her hair. The same game gives Raoul bisque colored hair while in the book and other adaptations he's got darker hair.
  • The recent Phantom of the Opera graphic novel by Varga Tomi has Christine be blonde true to the text, although it changes Erik's yellow eyes to red ones.
  • Speaking of which, the Phantom aka Erik’s eyes being yellow in the book which among other things gives him Humanoid Abomination vibes, is lost in every film adaptation (even the Truer to the Text Lon Chaney version) which gives him normal coloured eyes.
• The Picture of Dorian Gray: Dorian Gray is an angelic-looking blond in the novel, but it seems to be much more common for films to portray him as a brunet. The classic 1945 film version starred the dark-haired Hurd Hatfield, and subsequent dark-haired Dorians are probably due to directors going off of that film (and/or assuming that Dorian must look like a Byronic Hero) rather than actually reading Wilde's novel.
• Pinocchio: The Blue Fairy is given blonde hair, even though the book explicitly describes her with blue or turquoise hair.
• The Princess Bride has a tricky example of this, as Buttercup is described as having "hair the color of autumn", which could suggest she has reddish brown hair or orange hair (which is she's depicted as having on the cover of the book's trope page) but there's multiple colors of autumn and the book likely intentionally isn't clear about it. The movie settles on the blonde Robin Wright and most other book covers and illustrations follow suit.
• The Pretty Little Liars — all of them — in the television series.
• In the first book of The Princess Diaries series, Mia is described as being "dishwater blonde" and after a makeover her hair is trimmed short. In the movies, she's played by brunette Anne Hathaway and her frizzy hair is straightened but stays long.
• In The Prisoner of Zenda, King Rudolf, Rudolf Rassendyll, and Princess Flavia, like all the Elphbergs, have red hair; in the 1939 film, both Rudolfs are (probably) brunets (or at least one brunet, Ronald Colman) and Flavia has become "golden-haired goddess" Madeleine Carroll.
• Several of the engines in The Railway Series changed colours when the books were adapted for television in Thomas & Friends:
  • Donald and Douglas arrived on Sodor painted black in the books, then were painted blue when the Fat Controller decided to keep both of them. They remained black in the TV series.
  • The Skarloey Railway engines were all painted red with blue stripes in the books (except Rusty, who was greenish-black). To help younger fans tell them apart, the TV series gave them different colours. Skarloey and Rheneas became slightly different shades of red, Sir Handel and Peter Sam retained their blue and green paint (respectively) from their Mid-Sodor days, Rusty became orange, and Duncan yellow.
  • Zig-zagged with James; in the novel version of "Thomas and the Breakdown Train", James was painted black when he first came to Sodor, but was painted red after Thomas rescued him from a field that the Troublesome Trucks pushed him into. In the TV series adaptation of the story, James retains his red livery even before the Troublesome Trucks push him into the field. In The Adventure Begins, which is a CGi retelling of the first two Railway Series books, true to his book counterpart, James spends most of the special in his original black livery, only appearing in his red livery near the very end.
  • In the novel version of "Thomas and the Guard", Henry was painted blue when he came to Elsbridge Station to bring Thomas his passengers, following his repaint in "Edward, Gordon, and Henry". In the TV series adaptation, Henry retains his green livery featured in episodes that occurred before and since.
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades:
  • In the original light novel and the anime, Richard Andrews has very prominent and pointed sideburns that stick out from his head almost like horns. These are removed in his manga design.
  • In the novel, Nanao Hibiya has blue eyes and blue-black hair, at least when her Innocent Color isn't bleaching her hair white. Her design in the anime changes both to dark purple, following some of the promotional artwork.
• The Riftwar Cycle has been adapted to video game form and to graphic novel form.
  • In one of the games, Betrayal at Krondor, the magician Pug — who in the books is described as having dark brown hair and a beard and usually wearing a black robe - has shoulder-length blond hair, is clean-shaven, and wears a white robe. Similarly, Locklear is described as having wavy blond locks in the book, but in the game his hair is chestnut brown. This is even lampshaded when he meets an old friend.
  • In the graphic novels, the elf queen Aglaranna — who is described as having reddish-gold hair that contributes to her overall soft and angelic appearance — is given bright scarlet hair.
• Umino and Nagisa both have purple hair in the Satou Kashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai light novels. In the manga adaptation Umino has black hair while Nagisa has a dark brown. Nagisa's hair is also shortened in the manga.
• The Secret Circle:
  • Cassie is a brunette in the books, but on the show, she is a blonde.
  • Diana in the books is a blonde but on the show, she is a brunette.
• Lily from The Secret Life of Bees has black hair, like her deceased mother. In the film she is played by the blonde Dakota Fanning. Her mom also went from a raven to a blonde.
• The animated series of Seven Little Monsters depicts Two as having dark brown hair when he was blond in Maurice Sendak's original book.
• The Shannara Chronicles: Amberle in the books is described as having chestnut brown hair. Here she has dark brown hair.
• Sharpe had black hair in the books and was from London, but blonde Yorkshireman Sean Bean was cast in the title role for the TV adaptation. Bernard Cornwell was sufficiently taken with Bean's portrayal that later books retconned Sharpe's accent and backstory, but there wasn't much he could do about the hair.
• Averted in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White has hair "as black as ebony," just as described by the Brothers Grimm, as well as brown eyes. However, there do exist numerous pre-production drawings from the film, which show that the Disney animators originally considered giving her blue eyes and blonde hair or red hair. It seems the artists had a hard time deciding on one of the standard three hair colors.
• The anime adaptation of Sound! Euphonium changed the hairstyles of most of the characters.
• In the Sword of Truth book series, Darken Rahl is described as having distinctly blond hair, but has black hair in Legend of the Seeker. Flashbacks of his father Panis Rahl have him be with entirely white hair.
• A Tale Dark And Grimm: In the book, the king is described as having dark features like Hansel while the queen is blonde like Gretel. For whatever reason, the show switches the parents around (which messes up the queen's "gold" motif).
• Tarzan has black hair. While some actors/portrayals like Johnny Weissmuller match, some don't (Christopher Lambert, the Disney film, etc).
• Meggie's golden-red hair is referred to countless times throughout the novel The Thorn Birds, but in the TV miniseries adaptation, she is played by the brunette Sydney Penny (as a child) and Rachel Ward (as an adult). Her daughter Justine is also a red-head, but played by the brown-haired Mare Winningham.
• The Three Musketeers: Milady de Winter is blonde in the novel, but she's not always played by blonde actresses (or they don't always dye their hair). Examples include Yvonne Sanson (1953), Milla Jovovich (2011), Preeya Kalidas (2023 British version) and Eva Green (2023 French version). Also counts for loose (or even very loose) adaptations such as the cartoon Albert the Fifth Musketeer, in which she has black hair.
• Alba from The Time Traveler's Wife is specifically and repeatedly described as having curly black hair. That's important because she is supposed to take after her father physically. Nevertheless, her movie version has straight blonde-ish hair.
• The Twilight Saga:
  • Edward Cullen has bronze/reddish brown hair in the books, while the film depicts him with Robert Pattinson's natural brown hair. The manga keeps his hair reddish.
  • Blond-haired Riley Biers is changed into a brunet in the film adaptation of Eclipse.
• In Un Burattino Di Nome Pinocchio, Geppetto's hair is blonde instead of greying. That was done to replace a yellow wig wore by Geppetto in the original book, which was used to mock Geppetto by calling him Polentina.
• Vampire Academy:
  • In the book, Natalie Dashkov has black hair, in the film, her hair is brown.
  • Sonya Carp is a redhead in the books. In the film her hair is dark brown.
• The Vampire Chronicles:
  • Interview with the Vampire:
    • Louis' jet-black hair became brown in the movie.
    • Armand is described as having auburn hair. In The Film of the Book, he has exceptionally dark brown or black hair. The idea of costuming Antonio Banderas as a "Botticelli angel" would have been patently ridiculous.
  • Queen of the Damned:
    • Lestat, who in the novels has very long and blond hair, gets a dark pseudo-pageboy cut in the movie.
    • Marius, who likewise was supposed to be a long-haired blond, gets short, slick black hair in the film.
    • Armand is blond in the movie, although we only have the Word of God that this is him, as he's never named.
  • Interview with the Vampire (2022):
    • Because of the change to Louis de Pointe du Lac's ethnicity, he has brown eyes as a human, but as a nod to his book counterpart, his irises become green after his transition into a vampire.
    • The raven-haired Antoine from the books has been Gender Flipped into a blonde Antoinette for the TV adaptation.
    • Also as a consequence of Race Lift, Claudia is a brunette with brown eyes (although they gain a reddish-orange hue after she's turned) instead of a blonde with blue irises like in the novel.
    • The original Daniel Molloy is described as having ashen blond hair and violet irises, while the show's version is green-eyed and the 1973 Flashback reveals that he was a brunet when he was younger.
    • In the source material, Armand has auburn curls and dark brown eyes, whereas the TV iteration has black curls and orange irises as a vampire.
    • In the book, Santiago has black eyes, whereas the TV character has bright lime green irises.
    • The literary Madeleine is violet-eyed while her TV incarnation possesses hazel irises.
• The Vampire Diaries:
  • Elena and Katherine were both originally blondes in the books. They are brunettes on the show.
  • Caroline is a red head in the book series, but is blonde on the show.
  • Bonnie is originally a pale-skinned, redhead in the books, but she is African-American with black hair and darker skin on the show.
• Vanity Fair: The redheaded Becky Sharpe becomes a blonde in the 2004 film version.
• In the Warrior Cats books, Millie is a silver tabby. In the manga, she's pinkish-brown colored. The illustrator explained that when he got the character outlines, she was only described as a tabby, so he pictured her as rosy brown, and didn't find out her real color until he had already colored the cover of the second volume. Since the first volume's cover was intentionally tinted dark to obscure her color, and the manga itself was only in black-and-white at the time, he discussed with his editor whether to change it, but they decided that it would be dull to have two gray cats next to each other.
• Wayside School: The Nelvana animated series Wayside depicts Louis as having a blue goatee when the original books described him as having a mustache of many colors.
• The Wheel of Time:
  • Moiraine, described as brown-eyed in the books, is played by blue-eyed Rosamund Pike. She's also pretty tall, and Moiraine was short (as is typical for someone from Cairhien).
  • Thom Merrilin has a closely trimmed beard rather than the giant handlebar mustache from the books, which would probably just look silly and be hard to maintain.
• In the novel White Oleander, Claire Richards is a brunette, but in the movie, she's a blonde (and played by Renée Zellweger).
• Winnie the Pooh:
  • Rabbit's fur was brown in the illustrations of the A.A. Milne novels, but the Disney adaptations gave him yellow fur (with the exception of The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, where he has light green fur).
  • Eeyore has dark grey fur and a light gray muzzle in the original novel, movies and shows, but in most modern promotional artwork and merchandise he is depicted with blue fur and a flesh-colored muzzle, possibly to make him more noticeable and appealing to young children.
• The Witcher: Renfri has been portrayed with 'straw-colored' hair both in the books and graphic novel, while her eyes were described the "color of the sea". In In The Hexer movie and TV-series her hair and eyes are very dark.
• In John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick, Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie are (respectively) a Blonde, Brunette, Redhead trio. For the movie adaptation, however, Alex becomes the brunette (Cher), Jane the redhead (Susan Sarandon), and Sukie the blonde (Michelle Pfeiffer).
• Women's Murder Club: Lindsay in the show is played by the brunet Angie Harmon. However, in the original books and the TV film, Lindsay is blond.
• In The Worst Witch, Enid Nightshade went from being blonde in the books to having brown hair in the tv series. In the earlier television movie, Mildred (black hair) and Maud (blonde) both turned brunette.
• Wuthering Heights adaptations tend to do this with the blonde-haired members of the Linton family:
  • In the 1939 film, Edgar and Isabella have dark hair.
  • In the 1970 film, Isabella has light brown hair.
  • In the 1992 film, Isabella has auburn hair and her son Linton has light brown hair.
  • In the 2009 TV film, Edgar has dark brown hair, his daughter Cathy has light brown hair, and Isabella and her son Linton both have red hair.
• There is some confusion about Tycho Celchu's hair color in the X-Wing Series. In the comics, it's almost always blond. In the novels, by the three authors who will include him, sometimes it's blond, sometimes it's pale brown. It's never been directly addressed, but fans generally speculate that since these discrepancies never take place very soon after each other, it's because he has had time to either dye it or allow it to be bleached by sunlight.

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