Hulu Renews ‘Castle Rock’ for Another Season of Stephen King Scares
It’s not exactly surprising news, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome: Hulu has officially renewed Castle Rock for a second season. The series, from executive producer J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot, will continue to expand this particular little corner of Stephen King’s universe in Season 2, with new characters and a new story set in and around the fictional, eponymous Maine town.
As previously revealed at Comic-Con, creators Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason envisioned Castle Rock as an anthology series, where each season would tell a new story in the vein of a Stephen King novel — think of them like stories the master of horror never wrote. Per Deadline, the duo will have a chance to make good on that promise with a second season.
Season 1 is currently airing on Hulu, and centers on defense attorney Henry Deaver (Andre Holland), who returns to his hometown when a mysterious man — who may or may not be the devil? — appears in the basement at Shawshank Prison. Despite taking inspiration from King’s series of novels and stories set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, the Hulu series doesn’t lean too heavily on easter eggs and references — though there are some interesting connections to King’s works (accompanied by plenty of wild fan-theorizing on the internet).
It’s unclear which — if any — Season 1 characters might appear in Season 2; I’d have to assume there’d be at least some crossover between seasons given the town’s relatively small scale.
Hulu’s approach to original television feels downright novel in comparison to that of Netflix, which has proven more interested in quantity over quality. As recently touted by CEO Randy Freer, the company is keeping its focus limited to a handful of shows. Right now, that includes Castle Rock and the critically-acclaimed drama The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as Marvel’s Runaways (the second season premieres in December) and Harlots. Of course, Hulu’s development style hasn’t always proven successful; their flagship series, Casual, had its fourth and final season unceremoniously dumped on the platform a couple of weeks ago, and despite early interest, cult drama The Path sort of faded into obscurity before Hulu finally canceled it.