Summary

• Director David Gordon Green explains how he got Bob Odenkirk's cameo in Halloween Kills through a creative Google search.
• Odenkirk's cameo pays tribute to the original Halloween film and adds an Easter egg for eagle-eyed viewers to spot.
• Despite mixed reviews, the Halloween Kills cameo adds a fun element to the film and showcases Green's appreciation for the series.

Halloween Kills director David Gordon Green explains how his film's Bob Odenkirk cameo came to be. Green and co-writer Danny McBride revived the long-running slasher franchise with 2018's Halloween, a direct sequel to John Carpenter's 1978 original that established a whole new chronology for the Halloween movies. He followed this up with Halloween Kills in 2021 and Halloween Ends in 2022. Halloween Kills picks up right where the previous film left off and the tease that Michael remained alive at the end of the first is confirmed with the bloody path he carves through the second.

David Gordon Green's horror movies may divide audiences, and Halloween Kills is no exception, as the film earned a paltry 39% critics' score from Rotten Tomatoes. Some horror movies are better defined by the franchise they come from than any one single movie, but there's still some fun to be had in Halloween Kills and its Easter eggs. A cameo like Odenkirk's may not be as winking as Wes Craven playing himself in Wes Craven's New Nightmare, but it still shows Green's appreciation for the history of the Halloween series, while also not taking himself ultraseriously.

Bob Odenkirk's Halloween Kills Cameo Is An Actual Photo Of Him In The 1970s

Bob Simms Appears In A Photograph And Odenkirk Looks Like The Actor

In an interview with CinemaBlend, Green reveals that this desire to honor Michael's victims resulted in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Odenkirk cameo. Halloween Kills brings back two key characters from the original Halloween in Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall) and Lindsey Wallace (Kyle Richards, reprising her role), the two children whom Laurie babysat for on the night of Michael's first attack. Green says there's a moment in the film that pays tribute to those characters already lost to the masked killer, and the Better Call Saul star helped solve a minor casting snag:

"In the original Carpenter film, the Bob character, I wanted to have acknowledgement of all the deaths from the previous film, but we couldn't track [the actor] down or get the rights. Somehow we couldn't clear an image of Bob for our television news broadcast. And so I was frustrated by that because I wanted to acknowledge Bob's death, but we couldn't get footage of Bob. So I Googled 'Bob 1970s High School,' and a photo of Bob Odenkirk popped up that looked just like Bob! So I thought, 'He's probably easier to find; let's go get him!'"

The director says there was no problem getting Odenkirk to sign away the rights to his old high school photo, and as a fan of his work, the chance to put his name in the Halloween Kills credits was too good to pass up. The Bob Simms character, played by John Michael Graham, was the boyfriend of Laurie's friend Lynda and met a memorable end when he was pinned to a wall with a kitchen knife. Halloween was the only acting credit for Graham, who also appeared in a TV documentary on the filming of Carpenter's horror classic.

While audiences have become used to spotting high-profile cameos in major productions, this one would almost certainly have gone unnoticed by the vast majority, who were likely scrambling to remember Odenkirk's appearance after seeing his name in the credits. This ultimately increases Halloween Kills' rewatch value, as eagle-eyed viewers can be on the hunt for other Easter eggs.

Bob Odenkirk's Other Hilarious Cameos

Odenkirk Has Appeared In Many Notable TV Shows

Halloween Kills is not the only Bob Odenkirk cameo. The Emmy Award-nominated actor has a history of appearing in small, but very funny parts across his career. An SNL veteran, Odenkirk has the capacity and talent to play the strangest characters. One of his more memorable cameos is in The Office season 9, episode 16, "Moving On", when Pam goes to interview at an office closer to Philadelphia because of Jim's new job. There she meets her potential new boss, played by Odenkirk, who is every bit as weird and awkward as Michael Scott.

It's only minutes into their meeting before Odenkirk's character is sadly pondering to Pam if his employees like him. This is a particularly funny cameo considering Bob Odenkirk tried out for the role of Michael Scott before the part went to Steve Carell. While it's sacrilegious to say anyone would be better than Carell in the role, Odenkirk's performance gives a peek at what he would have looked like in the role, and it's admittedly compelling.

Odenkirk has cameoed in plenty of other shows, including How I Met Your Mother as Arthur Hobbs, Curb Your Enthusiasm as Gil, and I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson as a man who determines, "Triples are best." Whenever he's on screen, in a comedy like The Office or something smaller (though perhaps not as small as a photo in Halloween Kills), Odenkirk's humor and pathos work in equal measure to create a character that is always believable and real, and absolutely hilarious.

Source: CinemaBlend