Why The Walking Dead & The Mist Share So Many Cast Members – Screen Rant

Multiple cast members from 2007 Stephen King adaptation The Mist went on to appear on hit AMC zombie series The Walking Dead, and here's why.

Multiple cast members from 2007 Stephen King adaptation The Mist went on to appear on hit AMC zombie series The Walking Dead, and here's why. To be sure, The Walking Dead, adapted from Robert Kirkman's comic books, and The Mist, adapted from Stephen King's novella in the Skeleton Crew collection, share other similarities outside of just actors. Both stories concern an apocalyptic event that changes the world, although as The Mist's hotly contested ending would reveal, its apocalypse might be very temporary.

Both The Walking Dead and The Mist also focus on a group of survivors who do their best to survive the nightmarish, existential threat that now exists, those being zombies and inter-dimensional Lovecraftian monsters, respectively. Both also feature unstable, or immoral, human characters that pose almost as much of a threat as any supernatural beast. Even further, both The Walking Dead and The Mist were ultimately presented in alternate black and white versions, intended to invoke the horror films of the past.

Related: How Many Seasons The Walking Dead Has Left

Still, the most striking commonality between The Walking Dead TV show and The Mist movie is the amount of onscreen personnel crossover between them. It turns out, there's a good explanation for that.

The most noticeable common cast member between The Walking Dead and The Mist, is Laurie Holden. Holden played Andrea on Walking Dead, and female lead Amanda Dunfrey in The Mist. After her, there's Melissa McBride, who's become a small screen superstar playing Carol on Walking Dead, but was a virtual unknown when she appeared in a small but captivating role in The Mist, as a mother who leaves the relative safety of the supermarket to go find her kids, and surprisingly enough, survives the film. Then there's Jeffrey DeMunn, who played Dale on Walking Dead and the terrified Dan Miller in The Mist, or Juan Gabriel Pareja, Morales on The Walking Dead, and curiously enough, also a character named Morales in The Mist. That's not even everyone either, as several bit players are also shared between the two projects, as well as behind the scenes crew members.

That's a lot of crossover, and the reason for it is simple: Frank Darabont. Darabont directed The Mist, and served as The Walking Dead's initial showrunner. Darabont has a habit of "collecting" actors as his career progresses, regularly working with the same people. In the case of The Walking Dead, it was Darabont's first project after The Mist, and so he opted to import several members of the latter's cast into the former's ensemble. In fact, Darabont originally wanted Mist lead Thomas Jane to play Rick Grimes, but it didn't work out.

More: The Walking Dead: Why Maggie Left In Season 9 (& Returns In Season 10)

Supernatural: Why Adam Winchester Deserves a Happy Ending

Michael Kennedy is an avid movie and TV fan that's been working for Screen Rant in various capacities since 2014. In that time, Michael has written over 2000 articles for the site, first working solely as a news writer, then later as a senior writer and associate news editor. Most recently, Michael helped launch Screen Rant's new horror section, and is now the lead staff writer when it comes to all things frightening. A FL native, Michael is passionate about pop culture, and earned an AS degree in film production in 2012. He also loves both Marvel and DC movies, and wishes every superhero fan could just get along. When not writing, Michael enjoys going to concerts, taking in live professional wrestling, and debating pop culture. A long-term member of the Screen Rant family, Michael looks forward to continuing on creating new content for the site for many more years to come.

Read more:
Why The Walking Dead & The Mist Share So Many Cast Members - Screen Rant