Halloween Kills featured a whole bunch of familiar faces and characters from the 1978 original, but one key player was ultimately cut from the final edit. Michael Myers has been played by so many actors over the years, but it was Nick Castle who originally brought The Shape to life in John Carpenter’s Halloween. Though it’s now James Jude Courtney under the William Shatner mask, Castle was invited back for a cameo in 2018’s rebootquel.
He was supposed to repeat the trick in Kills, but for anyone wondering where he stood in for Courtney, wonder no more as it turns out his brief shot in the role was left on the cutting room floor. On the latest episode of The Thing With Two Heads podcast, hosts Sean Clark and Christopher Nelson — makeup designer on Kills — explained what the scene was and teased that we may eventually see it on the film’s home release.
“People keep asking what scene Nick Castle was in,” Clark said. “He was in a scene that got cut, that’s supposedly gonna be on the DVD or Blu-ray. It was a POV shot from the drone going into the bathroom and you see his reflection in the mirror. That was the shot.”
Castle’s cameo in Halloween ’18 comprised an important scene. He played Michael for the moment when Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie Strode sees her foe for the first time in 40 years, with him staring down at her from a window. Castle even got to recreate the iconic head-tilt that he previously originated in the ’78 movie. It sounds like his Kills cameo was a cool shot too, but clearly, it was a lot more disposable.
Though Castle didn’t make it in, director David Gordon Green managed to squeeze in as many other OG cast members as possible, including Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, Charles Cyphers as Sheriff Brackett, and Nancy Stephens as Marion Chambers. Donald Pleasence’s Dr. Loomis was even recreated thanks to an uncanny makeup job.
Spooky season might be over, but if you haven’t done so yet you can still catch Halloween Kills in theaters and on Peacock now.
