Stephen King Tried (And Failed) To Turn Down A Cameo In One Of His Adaptations

Stephen King might not be known for cameos in the way that the late, great Stan Lee was, but he's cropped up in a fair few adaptations of his work. When director Andy Muschietti tried to secure King's appearance in 2019's "It Chapter Two," however, the author initially turned him down. Why? Well, according to King every movie in which he's appeared ended up bombing, which isn't entirely accurate but is seemingly something the author firmly believed. Luckily, the "It" sequel did just fine at the box office, even after King relented and went through with the cameo.

Muschietti's take on the "It" universe continues to expand, most recently with the surprisingly scary and gruesome prequel series "It: Welcome to Derry." The HBO show followed "It Chapter Two," which saw a grown up Loser's Club finally do away with Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise in a climactic battle that "Welcome to Derry" actually managed to top with its far superior season finale. One thing the TV show didn't have, however, was a cameo from King, who gave his blessing to "Welcome to Derry" and made suggestions, but was otherwise removed from production.

Perhaps having lent his own likeness to "Chapter Two," the author felt he didn't need to be too involved with the TV show — especially since he wasn't all that crazy about showing up to film his cameo for the movie in the first place. Despite trying to get out of it, however, the writer was roped into appearing on-screen for the 2019 film, which seems to have broken the curse that King claims has followed every movie in which he's dare to appear.

In "It Chapter Two," Stephen King played the shopkeeper at Secondhand Rose, an antique store visited by James McAvoy's author Bill Denbrough. At a press conference (via GameSpot) screenwriter Gary Dauberman revealed that he wrote the small role specifically for King. "I wrote it into the action line, you know, this guy, the shopkeeper," he explained, "and I said, 'seems to look a lot like Stephen King.'"

In the scene, ​after finding his childhood bike amid the shop's treasures, Denbrough offers to sign one of his books as part of a deal to buy it, only for King's proprietor to turn his nose up at the proposition, saying that he isn't fond of the way Denbrough ended his latest novel. That is, of course, a reference to the widespread view that Stephen King himself writes disappointing endings, and is part of the reason the writer agreed to appear in the movie. King told Vanity Fair it was a "huge pleasure" to disparage Denborough in a similar fashion to the way readers have attacked him over the years.

But it wasn't just the opportunity to hurl a well-worn insult at McAvoy's character that tempted King. It seems Andy Muschietti originally had a much more ambitious plan for the cameo that involved a flashback in which the child version of Bill Denbrough encountered the same shopkeeper 27 years prior. This younger version of the Secondhand Rose proprietor was set to be played by King's own son, who writes under the name Joe Hill. Unfortunately, that flashback scene was never shot due to time constraints, but King still followed through with his own scene — though he tried surprisingly hard to get out of it.

After being asked to appear in "It Chapter Two," Stephen King first enquired as to how far the shoot was from his Maine home. But since "It: Chapter Two" was filming extremely close by in Port Hope, Canada, he couldn't use the distance as an excuse. So he tried a different tack. As Andy Muschietti told Vanity Fair:

"He said, 'Actually, you have to know that I'm a jinx. Apparently all the movies that he was in with a cameo ultimately bombed. He wanted to warn me. I said, 'I don't think we need to worry about that. We can avert it. We can lift the spell.'"

There have actually been quite a few Stephen King cameos, with the author showing up in dozens of screen adaptations of his books. He played a minister in 1989's "Pet Sematary" and Gage Creed in the 1997 "The Shining" miniseries to name just a few. The former actually made $57.4 million on an $11 million budget, which isn't a flop by any means. 1996's "Thinner," by contrast, made just $15.3 million on an $8 million budget, and featured King in a brief cameo as a pharmacist. Still, not every film in which the author appeared ended up bombing, but it seems he felt as though he was cursed regardless. If there was a curse, when "It Chapter Two" made $473 million on a $79 million budget it had been well and truly lifted.

King's "It Chapter Two" cameo was therefore perfect, not only because it gave the author the chance to make light of an oft-used criticism of his own work, but because it proved he wasn't the box office jinx he claimed to be.