Seems to be a tradition. Back when Michael Keaton was announced as Batman nobody could see him in that role either. He was only doing comedies at that time.
Oh, I have a better one; Angela Lansbury in 'The Manchurian Candidate'. As far as I know, the only time she has played a villain. And she was fantastic
Robin Williams in One Hour Photo. He did such an amazing job but it was just so unexpected at first to get over that he was doing a serious role that was a psychopath.
Guns Akimbo. Personally, feel it didn't really live up to its premise, but was fun enough I guess. I feel like Daniel Radcliffe has generally tried to do lots of different things since Harry Potter, which I can understand. Similar to Robert Pattinson after Twilight, that move away from big franchises, at least initially.
Mike Myers in Inglorious Basterds just always stood out to me as being, weird. Supposedly Adam Sandler was supposed to play the Bear Jew, and Simon Pegg was supposed to play the British Spy masquerading as the German officer. (Michael Fassbender). So the movie could have been quite "diverse" in terms of casting.