‘The Stand’: Ezra Miller is Playing Trashcan Man in the Stephen King Miniseries

Here’s a surprise: you know that upcoming miniseries adaptation of The Stand? The one that premieres next month? Well, it turns out that Ezra Miller has a part in it, and it’s been kept a secret all this time. Miller is playing The Trashcan Man, a schizophrenic pyromaniac who is drawn towards Randall Flagg, the evil supernatural figure who rises up in the wake of an apocalyptic plague. Matt Frewer played the character in the 1994 miniseries adaptation of the Stephen King novel.

EW broke the news that Ezra Miller is part of The Stand cast, playing The Trashcan Man. I have to admit: while I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by the footage released for The Stand so far, it’s impressive that the producers managed to keep Miller’s casting a secret for so long. I almost wish they had managed to keep it a secret until the series started airing just to make for an even bigger shock. When casting news for the miniseries trickled out, Trashcan Man was curiously absent. At one point, Marilyn Manson revealed that he has a part in the miniseries, which lead some people – including me – to speculate he might be playing Trashcan Man. But nope – Ezra Miller has the role.

“It’s so different from any way that anyone has seen Erza before, and he’s so committed to it,” said The Stand showrunner Benjamin Cavell. “He’s a huge fan of the book and had fallen in love with this character and wanted to play it for a long time. On our first call, he described Trash as ‘the embodiment of pyromania.’ The only thing this guy was capable of, and the only area in life he was comfortable, were with the explosives and instruments of fire and destruction.”

“What excites me is the deception of behavior and appearances,” Miller said. “Trash is the underestimated and misinterpreted amongst us.” Miller also revealed he played a part in designing the character’s wardrobe (or lack thereof) for the miniseries:

“‘Fireproof underwear’ were two of the first words out of my mouth in the first conceptual meeting. I was very interested in working directly with the wardrobe department in creating a look based entirely on the practical demands of the characters pyromania. Trash wears nothing but what is necessary to craft incendiaries, ignite them, and get as close to the flames as possible — in order to revel in the fire.”

As for those Marilyn Manson rumors? It turns out that the showrunners were considering Manson for a role – but not Trashcan Man. Instead, they wanted Manson to play a character named The Kid, whom Trashcan Man meets on his journey to Las Vegas to find Randall Flagg. The Kid turns out to be even more unhinged than Trashcan Man and ends up getting eaten by wolves. However, it looks like they scrapped the idea. “We thought we were going to be able to restore the character of The Kid, but there really isn’t a lot of reason for The Kid to exist,” Cavell said.

The Stand premieres December 17 on CBS All Access.