Unlike someone like, say, Freddy Krueger, the character of Michael Myers has mostly been played by different men over the years, with Tyler Mane really being the only actor to spring to fans’ minds when it comes to who can lay claim to being a repeat offender. But, in an ingenious move, Blumhouse Productions managed to nab Nick Castle for their upcoming Halloween picture.
Having been one of six men to don the William Shatner mask in the original flick (even if only he and Tony Moran were credited), it seemed only natural that Castle be sought out for the latest entry into the franchise – especially since it’ll serve as a followup to the 1978 classic, effectively ignoring all sequels in between.
So, naturally, we all assumed that it’d be Castle under the mask for the wealth of the new film, even if James Jude Courtney was also cast in the very same role. Like many of you, we’d thought that Courtney’s involvement would be on the brief side, not unlike Moran’s third act unmasking in the original.
Well, despite his enthusiasm for sharing pictures from the set, it turns out that Castle’s role is more of a cameo! Here’s what Courtney had to say in a recent interview with Halloween Daily News:
“So we started work, and I can’t remember if it was the second or third week that Nick came in and did kind of a cameo. He did a couple of scenes, and I’m in the scenes with him, which is really beautiful. He and I were hoping that would happen, because he even said, ‘This is the passing of the torch.’ We met with foreign journalists on the set, and Nick was so super gracious and just saying, ‘Look, I’ve come in to do a cameo. Jim is our Michael Myers now.’“
Funny enough, Courtney addressed the assumption of him being Castle’s stuntman head-on:
“Through the filming, I’m in every scene. I was there almost every day, long days, (and it was an) extremely physical role. I started reading this thing about my being his stunt double. I mean, Nick is 5’10, 170lbs, and I’m 6’3, 210lbs, so… (laughs) I think that’d be really difficult to pull off.”
From the sound of it, Castle was there for the nostalgia factor, but it seems like he was a stand-up guy, giving Courtney his seal of approval. One has to wonder if we’ll be able to spot the difference when Halloween arrives in theaters on October 19, but odds are we’ll have to wait for the Blu-ray commentary track to get the facts straight.
