James McAvoy reveals M. Night Shyamalan cast him in Split after 'crazy' EW Comic-Con party

What happens at Comic-Con parties doesn't always stay at Comic-Con parties.

James McAvoy reveals that a wild night at Entertainment Weekly's own event at the San Diego convention in 2015 actually led director M. Night Shyamalan to cast him as the lead in Split.

While stopping by EW's Comic-Con 2024 video suite on Saturday to discuss his new horror film Speak No Evil (in theater Sept. 13), McAvoy told the shocking story that ultimately led to his starring role in Shyamalan's major comeback.

"There was an EW party in 2017? 2015, maybe," McAvoy says. "We were on the roof, and it got crazy, and somebody ended up getting knocked out. Not in anger, not in a fight, but one of our mates ended up getting knocked out."

The fight caught Shyamalan's attention in a good way for McAvoy. "It was 'round about that moment that M. Night Shyamalan looked over at me from somewhere else in the party and went, 'Oh, I wonder if that guy could play the guy in Split?'" McAvoy says.

Watch McAvoy's interview in the video below:

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

The director previously revealed part of that story during the 2018 Comic-Con panel for his movie Glass. Shyamalan told the Hall H attendees that meeting McAvoy at the 2015 party while the actor was rocking a buzzed haircut helped him see him as the potential Kevin.

Split is a horror-thriller about three teenage girls (played by Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, and Jessica Sula) who are kidnapped by a man with 23 different personalities (McAvoy). The film ends with the shocking reveal that it takes place in the same cinematic universe as Shyamalan’s 2000 thriller Unbreakable, with Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson’s superhero and supervillain characters.

McAvoy stars next in Speak No Evil, a remake of a 2022 Danish horror film. The psychological thriller follows two very different couples who become friendly on vacation. All hell breaks loose, though, when the quieter, city-dwelling couple (Mackenzie Davis and Scoot McNairy) visit their new, more uninhibited friends at their rustic country home.

"It’s Blumhouse at its best, really," the actor, 45, previously told EW. "It’s entertaining and scary, but it’s also got something at its foundation. It’s grounded in something real."