James Wan is presently one of the biggest names in horror, so it was really only a matter of time before he became invested in the cinematic legacy of adapting Stephen King. In addition to being a producer on Gary Dauberman’s Salem’s Lot, he is also behind the development of another upcoming Stephen King movie: Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey. An adaptation of the eponymous short story, the project was first announced in May 2023, and it has put together a talented ensemble cast.
Having secretly completed production in early 2024, The Monkey centers on a pair of estranged twin brothers who have to reunite when a supernatural cymbal-banging monkey toy from their childhood reemerges. The film will be Osgood Perkins’ follow-up to the buzzy upcoming horror movie Longlegs, and according to Deadline, its cast includes a number of notable names.
Theo James
In The Monkey, Theo James will be playing a pair of identical twin brothers – and it’s actually the second time that he’s taken on a dual role in recent years, having had a brief role in Riley Sterns’ clone-centric dark comedy Dual. James earned heat early in his career for his big screen franchise work, starring in the last two Underworld movies and the Divergent series, but he has more recently been busy on TV with shows like The White Lotus and The Gentlemen (which is based on the Guy Ritchie movie of the same name).
Tatiana Maslany
Tatiana Maslany is now best known for playing the titular role in Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk: Attorney At Law series (available to stream with a Disney+ subscription), but she spent years earning acclaim for her work on the science-fiction series Orphan Black and won an Emmy in 2016. She has also done a lot of voice work, including shows like Invincible, 3 Below: Tales Of Arcadia, and The Harper House. She hasn’t done a lot of live-action features in the last decade, but her filmography includes David Gordon Green’s Stronger starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer starring Nicole Kidman. We can assume that she is playing the female lead in The Monkey, but the reality is that we haven’t heard any details about her character.
Christian Convery
Joining Theo James in playing a dual role in The Monkey (they are playing the same characters at different ages), Christian Convery has quickly established himself as a young star. On the big screen, he is known for his part in the horror comedy Cocaine Bear and for voicing Chase in PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie, but he is also known for playing the lead role in the Netflix series Sweet Tooth. He voiced Fregley in 2021’s animated Diary Of A Wimpy Kid and reprised the role in 2023’s Diary Of A Wimpy Kid Christmas: Cabin Fever.
Elijah Wood
Is there anyone who doesn’t know who Elijah Wood is? After all, the guy has been consistently working since he was a young kid in the late 1980s/1990s making movies like Radio Flyer, The Good Son and Flipper. Of course, at the start of the 21st century he famously played Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings movies, and he’s been doing great work in both film and television in the decades since. He’s been a part of some standout horror/thriller titles – like the 2012 remake of Maniac, the screen-life feature Open Windows, and the excellent cannibal-centric Showtime series Yellowjackets, but The Monkey will mark his first time being in a Stephen King adaptation
Colin O’Brien
Colin O’Brien is one of the youngest members of The Monkey’s ensemble cast, and yet he is the only one who has prior experience starring in a Stephen King movie (he played a younger version of Jaeden Martell’s character, Craig, in writer/director John Lee Hancock’s 2022 adaptation of the novella “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone”). That was his first professional acting role, and he has since followed that up with a few credits in multiple mediums. He played a young Willy Wonka in 2023’s Wonka, and has appeared in episodes of the shows S.W.A.T. and Grey’s Anatomy, but his biggest part to date has been playing the eponymous role in the AppleTV+ drama series Dear Edward (which co-stars Taylor Schilling and Connie Britton). In addition to The Monkey, he also has a part opposite Halle Berry in the upcoming Netflix movie The Mothership.
Rohan Campbell
Like a few of his co-stars in The Monkey, Canadian actor Rohan Campbell has been acting since he was a kid, his early career spent mostly making TV movies, but he has raised his profile since then. After a few years of making appearances in shows like The 100, iZombie, Supernarural and Snowpiercer, he landed one of the lead roles in the Hulu original series The Hardy Boys, which completed its third season in 2023. Campbell is also now well known to horror fans thanks to his standout role in David Gordon Green’s Halloween Ends, which saw him play what could be described as a vessel for the evil that is Michael Myers.
Sarah Levy
If you were a fan of the hit Canadian series Schitt’s Creek, then you surely remember the work of Sarah Levy, who played the friendly-but-ditzy waitress Twyla Sands from the Café Tropical. Since the conclusion of that show in 2020, Levy has been on shows including United We Fall and All Rise, but she has mostly been busy co-starring on the Canadian horror/drama SurrealEstate, which completed the run of its second season in December 2023.
We’ll continue to add to this feature as we learn about more actors who are a part of the upcoming horror film. The Monkey doesn’t have a release date yet, but given its source material, the skilled folks behind the camera, and all of the talented performers mentioned here, you can be sure that we will be keeping a close eye on the project and will be reporting about all future developments. Stay tuned for more news and details, and for a weekly roundup of all things related to Stephen King, check out my Thursday column The King Beat.
