The Haunting of Hill House was much more than your basic haunted house story. Based on Shirley Jackson’s classic 1959 novel of the same name, the Netflix series delivered memorably creepy scenes, including one stunningly choreographed long shot, along with a few terrifying jump scares. The truly chilling thing about the adaptation, though, was its ability to seamlessly blend supernatural thrills with a thoughtful explorations on childhood trauma, grief, addiction, and strained family relationships.
After the success of Hill House, writer-director Mike Flanagan, who also serves as showrunner, and producer Trevor Macy decided to renovate his eerie series and turn it into an anthology series, titled The Haunting. The second season, called The Haunting of Bly Manor, will draw its inspiration from Henry James’ classic works, including the 1898 horror novella The Turn of the Screw. Based on that source material alone, we can infer that The Haunting Season 2 will be every bit as frightening and smart as Hill House was. Let’s take a look at everything we know so far about The Haunting of Bly Manor so far, including teaser trailers, release date, spoilers, and more.
The premiere date is set for this fall. The Haunting of Bly Manor is set to premiere on Friday, Oct. 9. Flanagan confirmed in a July podcast interview with ReelBlend that the series had wrapped before any coronavirus pandemic-related shutdowns and that his post-production team had been working to complete the season virtually.
The Bly Manor trailer give you chills. In September, Netflix revealed the first Bly Manor trailer, and if you weren’t sufficiently creeped out by the haunted house from the first season, the eponymous locale (and the creepy children therein) should do the trick in the trailer.
There will be nine episodes. Creator Mike Flanagan confirmed in September that The Haunting of Bly Manor will be nine episodes long, which is one episode less than The Haunting of Hill House‘s 10 episodes.
A few people reached out today for some clarification on BLY MANOR, figured I’d just post it – it’s nine episodes. Some websites incorrectly have it at six, not sure why, but it’s nine.
— Mike Flanagan (@flanaganfilm) September 15, 2020
The poster for the new season is seriously creepy. On Aug. 24, Netflix shared the first look at Bly Manor — a ominous image of a woman walking into the water with an ominous manor looming in the background.
The Haunting of Bly Manor arrives this fall. Until then… look beneath the surface. pic.twitter.com/e5rICOlt5F
— The Haunting of Bly Manor (@haunting) August 24, 2020
The Book Behind The Haunting of Bly Manor Proves It’ll Be Just as Creepy as Hill House
The new Haunting universe installment will adapt several Henry James stories. When Netflix announced Hill House Season 2 would be titled The Haunting of Bly Manor, it became clear that James’ chilling gothic romance novella The Turn of the Screw — about a governess taking care of two orphaned children in a potentially haunted country estate in England — would be a big influence on the season. However, Bly Manor won’t just draw from The Turn of the Screw and will actually incorporate elements of several of Henry James’ other ghost stories.
“The thing I have access to, that no other adaptation of The Turn of the Screw has, is the rest of Henry James’ ghost stories. I get to use all of them,” Flanagan told Games Radar. “The Turn of the Screw has been adapted so many times. We know how perfectly it fits into a feature film format. We’re doing a whole season of television. 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 The 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,” he continued. “It’s all wrapped up in what seems to be familiar, but that familiarity goes away really early in the first episode. It says, ‘We’re off on a whole other road.'”
You guessed it. The HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR, a new chapter in the Haunting series based on the works of Henry James, is coming in 2020. pic.twitter.com/nvhRBEfH2E
— The Haunting of Hill House (@haunting) February 21, 2019
A number of Hill House stars will return for Season 2. Bly Manor is shaping up to be a reunion for Hill House‘s Crain family. Victoria Pedretti and Oliver Jackson-Cohen, who played the troubled twins Nell Crain and Luke Crain in Hill House, have both boarded Bly Manor. They’ll be joined by Kate Siegel, who played middle sibling Theo Crain, and Henry Thomas, who played the Hill House patriarch, Hugh Crain. Catherine Parker, who played Poppy Hill, has also joined the cast.
In the new season, Victoria Pedretti will play Bly Manor’s new governess, Dani, who is charged with caring for the two “unusual” children, Flora and Miles Wingrave.
Nellie Crain may be gone, but Victoria Pedretti is returning to the Haunting universe in The Haunting of Bly Manor coming 2020! pic.twitter.com/uWoB5zdxKx
— The Haunting of Hill House (@haunting) June 28, 2019
Meanwhile, Oliver Jackson-Cohen will portray Peter, “a charming fellow” who lives in the eponymous estate and makes “life very difficult” for everyone else, according to the actor. (And if you’ve read The Turn of the Screw, you have an idea of what time of trouble Peter Quinn may cause and what dark secrets the character may possess.)
*cues adorable British accent* help us welcome @ojacksoncohen to The Haunting of Bly Manor!!! pic.twitter.com/aCysTCqOut
— The Haunting of Hill House (@haunting) July 15, 2019
Henry Thomas will portray Henry Wingrave, the wealthy estate owner who hires the young American nanny Dani to care for his orphaned niece and nephew following the death of their parents and the former au pair’s tragic death. (In The Turn of the Screw, the children’s former au pair was named Miss Jessel.) Kate Siegel and Catherine Parker’s roles in Bly Manor are still being kept under wraps. Carla Gugino, who starred as the matriarch Olivia Crain in Hill House, has also hinted that she will be returning for The Haunting of Bly Manor to work with director Mike Flanagan, with whom she also worked on Gerald’s Game for Netflix.
New faces are joining the cast. iZombie favorite Rahul Kohli has joined Bly Manor as a series regular. Kohli’s character is the estate’s chef Owen, who is described by Deadline as “a small town guy with a worldly mindset, who has returned to the country to take care of his ailing mother.”
Meanwhile, T’Nia Miller (Years and Years) portrays the family’s housekeeper Mrs. Hannah Grose, and young actors Amelie Smith and Benjamin Ainsworth have also been added to the cast as Flora and Miles, respectively, the children under the care of Pedretti’s governess Dani. And Amilia Eve portrays the Bly Manor groundskeeper Jamie.
The Haunting of Hill House
It’ll be “scarier” than Hill House. While Hill House mostly kept the boofactor to a minimum, it sounds like Bly Manor will ramp up the spookiness quite a bit — and even feature some surprises for those familiar with Henry James’ work. Flanagan told Birth.Movies.Death, “We’re looking at all the ghost stories of Henry James as the jumping-off point for the season, so it very much is a whole new deal. It’s a cool way to expand on some of the things I loved about Season 1, but within the framework of a new story, without having to be restrained by the decisions we made last time. For Henry James fans, it’s going to be pretty wild, and for people who aren’t familiar with his work, it’s going to be unbelievably scary. I already think it’s much scarier than Season 1, so I’m very excited about it.”
Prepare to spot more hidden ghosts in Season 2. One of the most exciting aspects of The Haunting of Hill House was the fact that fans could watch and re-watch scene after scene to spot all the ghosts hidden throughout the series, and Flanagan said a similar ghostly game will be afoot in Bly Manor.
We are already discussing how to up our hidden ghost game. https://t.co/rW4AW0LpF2
— Mike Flanagan (@flanaganfilm) February 22, 2019
“That’s part of the DNA of The Haunting for me — that old-school approach to the ghosts,” he told Birth.Movies.Death. “In particular, we’re having an enormous amount of fun talking about how to take some of the ideas from Season 1 about hidden ghosts and things like that, and find new gears for them this time. It’ll be the same type of story, and we’ll treat the ghosts very much the same way.”
The Haunting of Bly Manor will premiere on Netflix on Friday, Oct. 9. The Haunting of Hill House is streaming now on Netflix.
