Well, seeing these things crop up so much recently and seeing some genuine good advice in them, I figured it'd be worth a shot to own a personal dilemma of my own.

Back in 2012 and through a little of 2013, I started a voice acting project for my channel on YouTube and, given the rest of it has been in development hell ever since, I wanted to start a new project to have something to post, and wanted the chance to invite some of my previously used voice acting friends to return for another collaboration.

Naturally however I still needed some fresh talent on a few roles. Those were obtained okay and I have a lot of footage of side characters and subplots already shot or prepared to be recorded at any time. Unfortunately, due to scheduling and time conflicts, the star of the project and a former collaborator of mine had to drop out. I've been looking for another star since then, but it really just hit me today...

This project slowly became less about something new for my channel, and more about me desiring to reconnect with old friends and create something great out of it. As a result, the prospect of re-casting the lead feels very troubling to me, and I'm tempted to just try and wait it out for when she could work with me again, even if that's months from now.

But of course I don't want to sully the time and effort put into the project by the rest of the cast I've been working with and would hate for this whole thing to grind to a halt because of this particular friend of mine, not to mention the way it could make her look as an actor (which isn't fair) and me look as a director (which is totally fair). I both hate the idea of going on without this friend of mine at the helm and waiting for her to free up her schedule.

So, knowing how much I dislike both of my options, I wanted to ask you guys what you suppose is my best course of action.

edit: whoever that was, f*** off and stop abusing your powers

How far are you into the project ?

Can you finish up a scene/chapter on an end note cliffhanger (Maybe have someone filling in the lead roll if needed) so you can publish or post the work you've done so far?

That can maybe buy you some time while you sort things out