‘Asteroid City’: Did They Really Recast Bill Murray Due to Covid?

When Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” announced its official cast on Wednesday most people were left wondering, where’s Bill Murray? Did his scenes get snipped up after the Keke Palmer #MeToo incident?

I broke the news that the official line of reasoning that the studio will be using is that Murray caught COVID and couldn’t shoot his role. He was replaced by Steve Carrell. However, if you take a closer look at the timeline, does it really compute?

Back in October 2021, Murray was livestreamed at the New York Film Festival alongside Anderson, Adrian Brody, and others from the set of “Asteroid City”. Not only that, he’s the person who revealed the title of the film during a BFI Q&A last November.

Of course, now people are speculating. A year-old article in which Murray admitted to “almost dying” from COVID in Ireland has resurfaced. However, Anderson’s film was in Spain, not Ireland.

Today, Dani Martinez, a fan, went on Twitter and posted a picture of Murray in Spain, shooting “Asteroid City,” with the caption:

“That's not true [that he didn’t shoot “Asteroid City], they filmed that movie in Madrid (my city) and I went near their hotel to see if maybe I could take a photo with someone from the cast. Luckily, Murray signed my poster. It was shot in Chinchon, Madrid, look for it and you will see I'm right.”

Of course, the Murray/Palmer incident only occurred five months after the “Asteroid City” shoot. The main questions people should be asking themselves now, are: when exactly was Carrell cast, and did reshoots occur? Because Murray was clearly on-set with the cast and crew.