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“
The coroner said it was an accident but it was no accident. It was a monkey.
„
~ Hal describing the Monkey.
“
The monkey that likes killing our family, it's back. It must be vanquished.
„
~ Bill Shellburn to his twin-brother Hal.
William "Bill" Shelburn is a supporting character in Stephen Kings' story short The Monkey and the main antagonist of the 2025 comedy horror film with the same name.
He is the sociopathic and narcissistic twin brother of the main protagonist, Hal Shelburn. Traumatized by the deaths of his family, especially his mother, he has since blamed Hal and attempts to use the Monkey's devious powers to try and kill his twin brother.
He was portrayed by Theo James (who also played James in The Inbetweeners Movie, Cameron Sullivan in The White Lotus and voiced Hector in Netflix's Castlevania and Bastion in X-Men '97), and by Christian Convery (who voices Oliver Grayson in Invincible) as a child, in which both actors also played his brother Hal.
In the short story, Bill plays no major role in the present day events, as his past is more explored in Hal recalling his experiences with the monkey. While Bill was oblivious to the monkey's powers, he witnessed the death of his friend after the monkey activated its cymbals the previous day.
Film[]
Twenty-five years later, Hal is estranged from both his brother and his son, also named Petey, whom he only sees once per year out of fear of passing his own bad luck onto his son. Hal learns that his ex-wife and her new husband, parenting author Ted Hammerman, plan to fully adopt Petey, cutting Hal out of his son's life. Hal and Petey stay at a motel, where Hal lies about being an only child and Petey remains frustrated at his father's apparent lack of care.
Soon enough Aunt Ida is killed at her house when the monkey, having escaped the well, is triggered once again. Ricky, the son of a local police officer, buys the monkey at the subsequent estate sale, growing attached to it as it reminds him of his absent father. Bill calls Hal out of the blue and demands he drive to Ida's to settle her estate and find the monkey, which Hal realizes has been activated already after a woman is electrocuted in their motel pool. The pair travel to Ida's house, where Petey learns about Bill's existence and Hal learns that numerous people in town have died in apparent strange accidents in the past week following Ida's death. The real estate agent is also killed in front of Hal when a shotgun falls out of a closet and fires itself.
Hal learns that Bill himself now owns the monkey, having hired Ricky to collect it from him. Bill knew that their mother's death was because Hal used the monkey and now seeks revenge, spending years waiting for it to return. Bill also had deduced that whoever turns the key is immune to the monkey's power, but that he cannot directly choose who the monkey will kill - the townspeople's deaths were caused by him repeatedly trying to cause Hal's death, to no avail. Bill demands that Hal bring Petey to him to he can turn the key instead, but Hal refuses. Ricky, disguised in his father's police uniform and wielding a gun, kidnaps both Hal and Petey and forces Petey to enter Bill's booby-trapped house to steal the monkey back.
Petey avoids Bill's traps and meets his uncle for the first time, who tricks him into turning the key - Ricky is subsequently killed by a swarm of wasps. Hal follows his son inside. Bill angrily tries to force the monkey to drum without turning the key, but the monkey retaliates by drumming repeatedly, causing widespread death and destruction in the town but still leaving Hal alive. Hal and Bill finally reconcile over their shared loss of their mother and apologize to each other now that this whole murdering mess has finally been settled, but not before the monkey finally kills Bill with one of his own booby-traps, ending his life and his murderous revenge in the process.
