Mike Flanagan certainly has his work cut out for him after the horrifying first season of The Haunting of Hill House. Following the terrific debut, fans can’t wait to watch what the director has in store next and so far, we know that the second chapter in the anthology series is entitled The Haunting of Bly Manor and will reportedly be even scarier than the previous story.
The all-new season was reportedly set to be based around Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, but we’ve now been told that Flanagan is going to have even more material to work with.
In the director’s own words:
“The thing I have access to, that no other adaptation of The Turn of to the Screw has, is the rest of Henry James’ ghost stories. I get to use all of them… The Turn of the Screw is only one of a dozen stories that we’re telling… All Henry James; all thematically linked. I think of Turn of the Screw as the backbone of this season – the through line that carries us from beginning to end. But we get to go off into The Jolly Corner and The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, and so many other of these wonderful ghost stories that people haven’t seen adapted before.”
If that doesn’t get fans hyped for the new batch of episodes, we don’t know what will. Additionally, many of the beloved cast members of the first go-round will be back for season 2. Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, Victoria Pedretti and Oliver Cohen-Jackson have all signed on to portray different characters in The Haunting of Bly Manor. It’s also been reported that Carla Gugino may be back, though that remains to be seen.
For those unfamiliar, the debut season of the hit Netflix show tells a modern reimagining of Shirley Jackson’s classic novel The Haunting of Hill House. While many fans of the book praised the series, they also stressed that it has little in common with the book other than the title and several shared character names.
The Haunting of Bly Manor is expected to be much of the same. While it’s based at least somewhat on Henry James’ ghost tales, including The Turn of the Screw, it will also likely tell its own story of an isolated mansion haunted by evil spirits. The highly-anticipated second season recently began filming and is expected to premiere on the streaming service some time in 2020.
