Roles rewritten for no-hoper (5)
I believe the answer is:
loser
'no-hoper' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'roles rewritten' is the wordplay.
'rewritten' indicates an anagram.
'roles' with letters rearranged gives 'LOSER'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for loser that I've seen before include "Person who's a failure" , "Unsuccessful type" , "Unsuccessful contestant" , "One vanquished" , "one plays without success" .)