After IT, Bill Skarsgard Starred In Another Spooky Stephen King Adaptation

Stephen King superfans, especially those who have read the books in the "Dark Tower" series (currently being adapted by Mike Flanagan), will be able to tell you that many of the author's stories interconnect in unexpected ways. For instance: in the original novel of King's "It," Dick Halloran from "The Shining" appears and interacts with one of the story's child protagonists. There is a scene in "Wizard and Glass," the fourth "Dark Tower" novel, where the characters visit the plague-ridden reality of King's "The Stand." The character of Father Callahan from "Salem's Lot" becomes one of the main characters of the "Dark Tower" series. There are also several King stories that take place in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. There are many other connections that a deep-cut King reader could add to this list. 

In 2018, television honchos Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason decided to take advantage of their extant connections by creating the Hulu TV series "Castle Rock," a show that brought together previously separated Stephen King characters to meet in the titular town. And the references to King's works were myriad. One of the central locations of the series was Shawshank Prison, the main location of "The Shawshank Redemption," and the recurring character Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Scott Glenn) was a character from "Needful Things." Background newspaper clippings make references to books like "Cujo" and "The Body" (the novella that inspired "Stand By Me"), and there's a character named Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy), who is the niece of Jack Torrance from "The Shining." 

One of the major characters from "Castle Rock" is a character called simply "The Kid," played by Bill Skarsgård. The Kid is, we should immediately clarify, unrelated to Pennywise the Clown, the child-eating monster that Skarsgård played in the hit 2017 and 2019 "It" movies. 

On "Castle Rock," The Kid is a resident of Shawshank Prison with a mysterious origin that it takes much of the series to uncover. Some of the other characters suspect that he is the Devil, and he has connections to some of the other characters. It will eventually be revealed that he hasn't aged a day since 1991 (!), but, more importantly, that he hails from an alternate dimension. The full explanation of the Kid's backstory is more complicated than that; of course, suffice it to say that the character has an extraordinary past.

It's also likely that Skarsgård was cast in "Castle Rock" because of his "It" connection. Andy Muschietti's two "It" movies were massive successes in 2017 and 2019 when they were released, with the first making over $704 million and the second making $463 million. Skarsgård gave an intense, haunted-house-style performance as a shapeshifting cosmic being that fed on the fears of young children. For the most part, he took the form of a clown. The clown design of the new Pennywise was immediately adapted for Halloween costumes, and the character immediately took his place among the most recognized horror movie killers. Skarsgård, it seems, had found something of a niche playing creepy characters from Stephen King adaptations. 

He's hardly the only one who has dipped in the King pool multiple times, however. Morgan Freeman, for instance, played the character of Red in "The Shawshank Redemption" before starring as a weirdo alien-fighting army general in "Dreamcatcher." Kathy Bates won an Oscar for playing Annie Wilkes in "Misery," and then later played a bitter DJ in the 1994 miniseries of "The Stand." Drew Barrymore was in both "Cat's Eye" and "Firestarter" when she was still a girl, and her "Firestarter" co-star, Martin Sheen, was also in "The Dead Zone." William Sadler appeared in "The Shawshank Redemption," "The Mist," and "The Green Mile." King's world is vast.