Mr. Mercedes: Stephen King’s Gory Cameo Role Explained

Legendary horror author Stephen King had a brief cameo in the TV show adaptation of Mr. Mercedes, in which he is depicted dead after apparently being violently murdered. The American crime drama, which premiered on Audience in the summer of 2017, is based on King’s Bill Hodges novel trilogy. The trilogy consists of 2014’s Mr. Mercedes, 2015’s Finders Keepers, and 2016’s End of Watch. Mr. Mercedes moved to Peacock, which has sparked conversation regarding a potential season 4 revival.

The book version of Mr. Mercedes is a true detective novel, and upon its release was embraced by King fans and book critics. It won the 2015 Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America, and a Goodreads Choice Award in 2014 in the “Mystery and Thriller” category. The TV show of the same name  – which stars Brendan Gleeson as the retired detective Bill Hodges – has also garnered positive critical responses, with Mr. Mercedes season 1 holding an impressive 86% approval rating. This is largely thanks to the show’s loyalty to King’s vision: it’s tense and eerie, with fast-paced dialogue and well-rounded characters. Plus, it has some scary, shocking moments.

One of those scary moments – an extremely bloody one – occurred in season 1, episode 6, “People in the Rain.” This episode featured a cameo by King himself. He plays a chef in a diner who is depicted dead, part of a bloodbath inside a diner. He’s shown hanging over a counter with a knife sticking out of his neck. But, as it turns out, this disturbing scene is simply part of a dream sequence Brady Hartsfield (Harry Treadaway), a young serial killer, is having internally. This makes King’s Mr. Mercedes cameo very different from his appearances in other screen adaptations of his works.

King has had cameos aplenty in various movies and shows based upon his stories. He appeared as a minister presiding over a funeral in the 1989 movie Pet Sematary, a plague survivor in the 1994 miniseries The Stand, a plane passenger in the 1995 miniseries The Langoliers, a bandleader in the 1997 The Shining miniseries – his attempt to correct a movie adaptation King famously hated – and a shop owner in 2019’s It Chapter Two. Those are just a handful of his cameos, among many others. All of King’s cameo roles are small parts, and often pose a humorous way to pay homage to the author and give a nod to his fans.

King’s cameo in Mr. Mercedes, clearly, took a different route. It was a role within a dream sequence that didn’t really occur in the reality of the show, but instead happened within a serial killer’s warped fantasy as he sits in a diner. While King hasn’t had a cameo quite like this one before, he has had one that takes place in a diner. In the season 2 premiere of Under the Dome in 2014, King played a customer inside the town diner asking for more coffee. This is yet another structure of his cameos; some serve as nods to his other works or act as Easter eggs to reference characters in other movies or shows.

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