Wilson the Volleyball From 'Cast Away' Is Suddenly Everywhere
Nearly 15 years after becoming an unlikely phenomenon, Wilson the volleyball from Cast Away is suddenly popping up all over the place.
The surprising trend began a few months ago, when a brand-spanking new model of the makeshift, blood-stained ball was presented at a New York Rangers game to Tom Hanks. Hanks, of course, played Cast Away’s marooned FedEx employee Chuck who’s stuck on a tropical island after a plane crash and creates Wilson out of lonely desperation. It was a sweet reunion that very much warmed the cold hearts of hockey fans everywhere.
Since then, Wilson has been referenced in at least three hit TV comedies.
He’s actually a big part of Will Forte’s The Last Man on Earth, which airs on Fox on Sunday nights. Forte plays Phil Miller, the titular survivor of a mysterious virus. Early on in the pilot, he watches Cast Away and scoffs at the idea that a guy would resort to turning athletic gear into friends.
“That would never happen! I’m not buying it,” he tells his TV. “I’ve got news for you Tom Hanks: I will never, ever talk to a volleyball. Not buying it. Balls aren’t people, dude. Balls are for fun.”
Cut to a few minutes later, and Phil’s not only got one ball friend — he’s got a whole bachelor’s party worth of them, each with a distinct personality. (His volleyball is named Gary and is apparently difficult to work with.)
Watch a behind-the-scenes video below:
Wilson has more minor — but just as funny — cameos in the Netflix comedy The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and the trailer for HBO’s Emmy-winning Veep.
In Kimmy Schmidt, Ellie Kemper plays a grown woman who escapes from a cult that kept her sheltered from all outside pop culture. In the third episode, she goes on a blind date with an elderly billionaire, who mostly speaks disconnected nonsense. Kimmy has no idea what he’s talking about, and tells him that he’s a terrible conversationalist. “You may as well be that old volleyball I drew a face on,” she says. When he responds, “Wilson?” she thinks it’s just another bit of confused wackiness.
Finally, in the trailer Veep’s season 4, aide Gary (Tony Hale) tells President (!) Selina Meyer (Julia Louise-Dreyfus) that she still needs his services now that she’s in the Oval Office. “I’m your calendar, I’m your Google, I’m your Wilson the volleyball,” he says.
There’s no clear reason why Wilson — who is, again, a volleyball with a face made out of Tom Hanks’ smeared blood — has made a sudden re-emergence into pop culture. Perhaps the ball finally washed ashore after being lost on a life raft in the Pacific, and maybe it secretly landed in Los Angeles, near a beach where a bunch of comedy writers like to hang out.
Or hey, maybe it’s just the fact that nostalgia gets warm laughs, and Cast Away came out a stunning decade and a half ago.
