Did Bill Skarsgård's Castle Rock Character Appear In A Stephen King Novel?

Hulu's mystery-horror series "Castle Rock" was loosely based on the works of Stephen King, but rather than adapting any one particular story, it nibbled at the entire buffet. The titular town is the setting of numerous King novels, including "The Dead Zone," "Cujo," and "Needful Things." The show features familiar King characters like Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Scott Glenn), notorious bully Ace Merrill (Paul Sparks), and — in Season 2 — Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan), of "Misery" fame.

Not all the characters were exactly as King fans might remember them, though. Annie, a villain in her original story, is a main protagonist in "Castle Rock." Then there's Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy), who shares a name with Jack Torrance from "The Shining" but is actually his niece.

Easily the character who drew the most interest from fans, though, was "The Kid," a pale and mysterious figure played by Bill Skarsgård. Following the death of Shawshank State Prison warden Dale Lacy (Terry O'Quinn), the Kid is discovered in a cage in the prison's disused F Block, where Lacy had been keeping him captive for 27 years. "Castle Rock" Season 1 is wrapped around the mystery of who the Kid is, how he ended up in the cage, and why terrible things seem to happen around him. Is he the devil, as Lacy believed? Is he secretly a figure from the wider Stephen King canon, like Randall Flagg or the Crimson King? Or is he just an unfortunate innocent who stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time?

The short answer is ... We don't know. "Castle Rock" Season 1 left the Kid's identity deliberately ambiguous, and Skarsgård's surprise return in Season 2 only created more questions.

"Castle Rock" premiered in 2018, the year after Skarsgård had made his triumphant debut as Pennywise the clown in the box office phenomenon "It."  Naturally, the fact that the Kid was kept prisoner for 27 years invites speculation that he could be an incarnation of It, since It is also known to awaken from its slumber and wreak havoc every 27 years. However, since the Kid doesn't shapeshift, eat children, or have a mouth full of lights, the 27 years thing is probably just an Easter egg.

One popular theory among Stephen King fans is that the Kid is an incarnation of Randall Flagg, aka the Man in Black, aka Walter Padick, one of the most frequently recurring antagonists in the King multiverse. There's a family connection here: Flagg was most recently played by Bill Skarsgård's brother, Alexander Skarsgård (pictured above), in the 2020 miniseries adaptation of "The Stand." Randall Flagg is a powerful, malevolent sorcerer who pops up throughout Earth's history and serves an evil entity called the Crimson King — essentially the Kingverse's version of the Devil. It's also been theorized that the Kid could be the Crimson King himself.

One point in favor of the Randall Flagg theory is that the Kid doesn't age at all during his 27 years of captivity, which is what you'd expect of an immortal sorcerer. There's also evidence that he's much older than he appears. During a climactic scuffle with "Castle Rock" Season 1's protagonist, Henry Matthew Deaver (André Holland), Henry briefly sees the Kid with a monstrously aged face. But like many things in the season finale, the meaning of this is ... ambiguous.

"Castle Rock" Season 1 presented death row attorney Henry Matthew Deaver with a dilemma similar to that of the "Twilight Zone" episode "The Howling Man" (which is directly referenced when it's shown on a TV screen in the show). A man is discovered locked in a prison cell; his captors claim he is the Devil, but he denies it. Do you set him free and risk unleashing the Devil on the world? Or do you leave him locked up, potentially condemning an innocent man? Like the protagonist of "The Howling Man," Henry chooses to help the Kid to freedom. 

Eventually, the Kid tells a story about his origins: he is another Henry Deaver from elsewhere in the multiverse, who accidentally wandered into the wrong reality and has been trapped ever since. Being an aberration in reality might explain why the Kid seems to cause suffering and misery wherever he goes, causing his cellmate to die of cancer and infecting people's minds with violence. Of course, those things could also be explained by the Kid actually being the Devil (or the Kingverse equivalent) and his self-declared backstory being a lie.

Season 2 complicated matters further with a tale set 400 years in the past, in which an "angel," played by Bill Skarsgård, revealed himself to a pioneer woman, saved the early settlers of Castle Rock from famine, and then commanded them all to die in a bloody ritual sacrifice. 

Appearing at different points in history and unleashing evil wherever he goes would fit the bill of being either the Devil or Randall Flagg. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you're a fan of lingering mysteries), "Castle Rock" was canceled after just two seasons, so we'll never know the Kid's true identity for sure.