Key Insights
- Cameo Significance: Bill Murray’s cameo in Zombieland is considered iconic and unexpected.
- Initial Choices: The role was originally intended for Patrick Swayze, who was unable to participate.
- Revisions Made: The scene evolved through multiple rewrites before Murray agreed to take part.
- Sequel Appearance: Murray returned for a cameo in the sequel, Double Tap, in 2019.
Bill Murray’s cameo in Zombieland is an all-timer, a surprising appearance that caught audiences way off guard back in 2009. And while it might be one of the funniest ever and a standout scene in the zom-com, it wouldn’t have happened without plenty of rejections and Kingpin.
First, it’s worth noting that Bill Murray wasn’t the first choice to cameo in Zombieland. In fact, it was originally written for Patrick Swayze (as a nod to Ghost), who would sadly be too sick to take part (he would pass away just a few weeks before the movie came out). Several other names were thrown around, including Sylvester Stallone, Mark Hamill and even Joe Pesci, whose agent turned the team away due to money.
With so many big names rejecting the bit part, the scene itself was tweaked. As Zombieland co-writer Rhett Reese recounted around the time of the movie’s release, “We were out on set, and now we were actually a couple days away from shooting the scene, and we’d written an alternate version where there was no celebrity. [The four main characters] were going to just run into some zombies in the house.” At one point, the name Bill Murray came up, which led to Kingpin co-star Woody Harrelson to try to recruit him for the Zombieland spot.
Unfortunately, Murray didn’t really care for the idea – not the way it was initially written, at least. Reese continued, “We re-wrote the scene so that he was alive, so he could talk. And then, we decided we would kill him off.” Adding to this, co-writer Paul Wernick said, “We sent it back to the FedEx Kinko’s. He reads the script, loves it, calls Woody, and Woody persuasively convinces him to do the project. Two days later, he was out on set with us.”
Bill Murray must have had one heck of a time making Zombieland because he would agree – surely under far less stressful circumstances – to make yet another cameo in the 2019 sequel, Double Tap, turning up in a mid-credits scene.
Where would you place Bill Murray’s cameo in Zombieland as far as the surprise element?
