The Stand miniseries included a subtle Stephen King cameo that may have gone unnoticed by many viewers. CBS All Access’ The Stand series developed by Josh Boone is, of course, based on the iconic 1978 novel of the same name by King, which is merely the latest adaptation of the post-apocalyptic story. The first adaptation was a miniseries in 1994, which was spun out of a failed attempt to turn the book into a two-part film series. And now, the second TV adaptation has followed that same path.

King’s novels are often the source for the most high-profile horror movies to grace the big screen, but occasionally, his work finds its way onto the small screen as well. Once again, after years of unsuccessfully being able to turn the story into a movie, King resolved to have his book adapted into a miniseries on a premium network or streaming service – which turned out to be CBS All Access. Given he’s the author of The Stand and is a well-known author around the world, he likes to pop up in his adaptations every once in a while. Recently, he showed up as an antique shop owner in 2019’s IT Chapter Two. Now he’s appeared in The Stand.

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In one of the flashback scenes in The Stand episode 4, “The House of the Dead”, Nick Andros and Tom Cullen manage to escape Julie Lawry, who fires at them with her shotgun. When they get around the corner of a building and into a bus stop, they see an advertisement for Hemingford Home, which has been changed into a retirement home in this adaptation. On the left side of the photo, viewers can see Stephen King sitting as one of the retirees at Hemingford Home. Considering he has another book releasing in 2021, King is anything but retired at the moment.

Hemingford Home was a Nebraskan town in The Stand book, but changing it to a retirement home feels appropriate for the 2020 adaptation. It falls in line with numerous other modern updates, which will ultimately include a new ending for The Stand that has been written by King himself. But the fact that the episode put King in the advertisement for the retirement home is something that should give the author’s fans a good chuckle when they spot it.

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Later in the episode, Nick and Tom arrive to Hemingford Home – apparently as Mother Abigail’s first arrivals – and there are a handful of corpses lying around the building. It’s possible one of them is King’s character, who could’ve succumbed to the Captain Tripps disease. If not, though, he could show up again – in the flesh – at some point in The Stand‘s final episodes. So be on the lookout for him.

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Mansoor Mithaiwala
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Mansoor Mithaiwala is Screen Rant’s TV Lead Editor. He originally joined the site as a freelance writer on the Lists team before moving over to News and Features, eventually becoming an editor in 2018. Over time he’s done quite a few different things, including helping launch gaming on the site, often handling news, features, and guides simultaneously. Now he sticks primarily to movies and TV, and spends way too much time looking at analytics. It sure seems like he’s put his Political Science degree to good use, huh?

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