What If Robin Williams Starred In The Shining Instead Of Jack Nicholson?
Director Stanley Kubrick considered casting Robin Williams as Jack Torrance instead of Jack Nicholson, prompting people to wonder how different The Shining might have been if the Stephen King adaptation took this route. Although horror legend Stephen King’s novel The Shining was a hit with critics and the public, the book did not have an easy road to the big screen. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, 1980’sThe Shining was a divisive adaptation that confounded many critics and displeased King himself.
However, time has been kind to Kubrick’s take on King’s tale. While other King adaptations about haunted hotels, like 2007’s 1408, remain sorely underrated, The Shining was vindicated by reviewers within a few years of its release. By the '90s, The Shining was already seen as a classic of horror cinema, and in the decades since, the King adaptation has arguably become the most iconic of Kubrick’s movies.
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However, The Shining was not always destined to be seen as a classic by critics. The movie’s production was fraught with tension, with the cast feeling brutalized by the experience of shooting The Shining. Before production even began, the question of who to cast in the movie’s main roles was contentious for Kubrick and King. Believe it or not, comedy legend Robin Williams was one of the names that Kubrick considered for the part of Jack Torrance, and this could have resulted in a very different iteration ofThe Shining. While some Stephen King movies, like It Chapter 2. have been saved by stellar turns from a scene-stealing comics, few fans ofThe Shining would be able to picture the part of an ax-wielding murderer being played by Williams, nor what this
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