The Haunting of Hill House arrived in 2018 and was quickly one of the scariest horror series on Netflix.
The season followed the Crain family as they moved into the large Hill House, only to find that the house was haunted, which resulted in the death of the mother.
Years later, the kids are grown up, and all have problems in their lives based on the traumatic childhood experience at Hill House. When one of the daughters goes back, everyone follows, reliving their past and hoping to save her from the fate of their mother.
When the season ended, it seemed there was no room for another season as the story was told in full. However, Netflix announced a renewal for a second season with a nice twist.
Here is what you need to know.
This article provides everything that is known about The Haunting of Hill House Season 2 and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s dig down into what is known so far.
- Updated on September 11 – Release date info, full cast info, series synopsis, and new trailer added.
Is there going to be a Season 2 of The Haunting of Hill House?
The good news is that there will be a second season of the series.
However, what might confuse some fans is that it will not be called The Haunting of Hill House Season 2.
Instead, this will be an anthology horror series, and the second season will have a different name based on the new haunted house that it explores this time around.
The new season will be titled The Haunting of Bly Manor, and the good news is that it wasn’t as affected by the coronavirus pandemic as other Netflix originals.
Release date latest: When is The Haunting of Hill House Season 2 likely to come out?
The Haunting of Bly Manor was planned for a 2020 release, and that has not changed at all.
Mike Flanagan, the director behind the first season, as well as Netflix horror movies Gerald’s Game (based on the Stephen King novel of the same name) and Hush, said that there should not be a delay in fans getting the new season of the Haunting series.
Flanagan appeared on the CinemaBlend ReelBlend podcast and gave the good news to fans.
We didn’t really miss a step, believe it or not. We had already wrapped before the whole COVID shutdown hit all the productions.”
This is excellent news. Flanagan did say that they still had to figure out how to do post-production work, which likely includes adding effects for the ghostly aspects of the story, but he said that was done remotely.
“My post team also … they cracked it real fast, and we’ve been doing everything on these virtual sessions,” he continued.
Flanagan said that Netflix had not announced its release date yet because they have “their own plan,” but he has been working non-stop and sees no reason it won’t hit late in 2020.
“It’s not going to get kicked off into 2021, or anything. Everything’s on schedule. I’m really excited for you guys to see it.”
Netflix announced in August that The Haunting of Bly Manor will premiere on the streaming service on Friday, October 9, 2020.
The Haunting of Hill House Season 2 cast updates
With the new story and the completely different haunted house, most fans might have expected to see an original cast.
That won’t happen in all the cases.
Much like the American Horror Story franchise, The Haunting of Bly Manor will bring back actors from The Haunting of Hill House, but in different roles.
This will keep the feeling familiar for fans of the first season.
Henry Thomas (the young Hugh Crain), Kate Siegel (Theo Crain), Victoria Pedretti (Neil Crain), and Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Luke Crain) will all return in new roles.
Pedretti is in the role of Dani Clayton, who hopes to escape her own painful past by taking a job looking after the Wingrave children at the estate.
“Victoria and I talked at the very beginning about how to differentiate this character from Nell,” Flanagan said.
“Nell was a character that carried around a ton of darkness with her and never quite got out of the shadows that she was introduced in when we see her as a child. Between the setting in the ’80s and this idea of a young American abroad, just out on an adventure, it brightened everything up, to begin with.”
Jackson-Cohen’s character is Peter Quint, “a calculating business associate of the uncle’s who tends to take whatever he wants from Bly Manor, regardless of permission.”
His character is lifted directly from The Turn of the Screw.
“One of the things that was exciting for Ollie this year, having played this very broken and vulnerable in season one, was to come in and play a villain, but trying to find a way to play a villain that wasn’t so simple,” Flanagan said.
“That was just something else we tried very hard to say: People are good and bad, all of us.”
Siegel’s character is unknown but Thomas will play Henry Wingrave, the wealthy uncle of the two orphaned children.
His character “wants little to do with the estate or the son and daughter of his late brother and sister-in-law.”
He’s happy to support the kids from afar, as long as he doesn’t have to visit the manor himself.
Catherine Parker, who played ghost Poppy Hill in The Haunting of Hill House, will also return for Bly Manor.
Deadline reports iZombie star Rahul Kohli signed on as a series regular.
His character as “a small-town guy with a worldly mindset, who was returned to the country to take care of his ailing mother.”
Amelia Eve is the skeptic groundskeeper Jamie.
T’Nia Miller plays the manager of Bly Manor, Hannah Grose, who is described as “dependable” and possibly “in denial” about what goes on there.
Tahirah Sharif plays the children’s previous governess, Rebecca Jessel, who falls victim to the forces of Bly Manor.
Amelie Smith and Benjamin Ainsworth play Flora and Miles, the children under Dani’s care.
Here is the trailer for The Haunting of Bly Manor.
The Haunting of Hill House Season 2 spoilers
The Haunting of Hill House was based on the classic Shirley Jackson haunted house novel of the same name, a book Stephen King called the scariest haunted house story ever written.
The Haunting of Bly Manor has a similar pedigree. It is based on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw.
The book focuses on a governess who, caring for two children at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. From the sound of the character descriptions, it is Victoria Pedretti, who will portray the lead character of the governess in the Netflix series.
This isn’t the first time the story has been adapted (nor was The Haunting of Hill House, which itself was adapted previously twice as The Haunting, once in 1963 and again in 1999).
The Turn of the Screw was adapted first in 1961, titled The Innocents.
However, don’t expect a straight adaptation. This is not The Turn of the Screw, but instead a look into the horrors of Henry James.
“We were able to open up his entire library of ghost stories, stuff that’s never been adapted, and build the whole season out with the entirety of Henry James’ supernatural library,” Flanagan said.
“And that has been a real treat because we really get to do things that I’ve never gotten to see before. Turn of the Screw is really just our way in.”
The Haunting of Hill House Season 2 is rumored to be coming out in 2020 on Netflix.