Summary

• The Monkey movie cast welcomes MCU and Lord of the Rings stars.
• Other additions to the Stephen King adaptation include actors from Sweet Tooth, Wonka, and Schitt's Creek.
• With a diverse lineup of talented actors, The Monkey is shaping up to be a must-watch horror film for fans.

The new Stephen King horror movie The Monkey adds several names to the cast, including stars of the MCU and Lord of the Rings. King’s original short story, featured in his Skeleton Crew collection, concerns a cursed monkey toy whose discovery in an attic by a pair of brothers unleashes a series of mysterious deaths. Producer James Wan’s upcoming Monkey adaptation will star Theo James as twin brothers Hal and Bill, and is set to be directed by Osgood Perkins.

The latest King adaptation has now set several more cast members besides the previously-announced James, headed up by Tatiana Maslany of MCU show She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, along with Lord of the Rings' Elijah Wood. The movie's cast also adds Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth), together with Colin O’Brien (Wonka), Rohan Campbell (The Hardy Boys) and Sarah Levy (Schitt’s Creek) (via Deadline).

The Monkey Is Trying The Same Timeline Trick As IT

King’s original "The Monkey" story, set in the same Texas town Stu Redman of The Stand calls home, sees young boys named Dennis and Peter discovering the titular monkey in their uncle’s attic, after which it’s revealed that the cursed toy was responsible for killing everyone in their father Hal’s family when he was a boy. The grown-up Hal tries to end the monkey’s curse forever by throwing it in a lake, but the story’s ending makes it clear that this particular evil is hard to kill.

Wan and Perkins’ new adaptation makes some tweaks to King’s story. This time around, the brothers, now named Hal and Bill and played as kids by newly-announced cast member Convery, find the monkey and try to destroy it. Years then pass, and the brothers grow apart. When the monkey returns to once again plague their family, the estranged twins must come together to finally end the terror.

The Monkey marks the first appearance in a King adaptation for Wood, a noted horror fan.

The split timeline structure of The Monkey immediately recalls IT, which takes place both when its main characters are kids and decades later when they are adults. Like IT, The Monkey features the adult versions of its lead characters coming together to stop the evil they thought they had already defeated years before. King adaptations tend to be hit-or-miss, but The Monkey has a solid premise, and the new cast additions make the production sound even more promising than before.

Source: Deadline