Elsie Fisher, Lizzy Caplan Cast In ‘Castle Rock’ Season 2

The Hulu anthology series from the minds of J.J. Abrams and Stephen King will be Misery-themed in its sophomore season. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Castle Rock has begun casting new faces for the upcoming sophomore season, a fresh take on the iconic psychopathic nurse Annie Wilkes that was brought to life by Kathy Bates. 

Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex, True Blood) is set to star as the lead, alongside Eighth Grade standout Elsie Fisher playing Wilke’s daughter. The rest of the cast includes Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption), Garrett Hedlund (Triple Frontier), Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips), Yusra Warsama (My Brother the Devil) and Matthew Alan (13 Reasons Why, Sons of Anarchy).

The Stephen King based anthology will be depicting what seems to be a modern take of his 1987 novel Misery, later adapted to become a critically acclaimed film in 1990 starring Kathy Bates and James Caan. The Hollywood Reporter states that:

“Season two will explore a feud between warring clans that comes to a boil when budding psychopath Annie Wilkes, King’s nurse from hell, gets waylaid in Castle Rock.“

Just as season 1, the story will be set in the ominous town of Castle Rock, where nothing is as it seems. Showrunners Dustin Thomason and Sam Shaw are adamant about having compelling and independent stories, despite being in the same place. Thomason expressed this in the following quote from The Hollywood Reporter:

“Each season is going to be its own self-contained story: beginning, middle and end,” Thomson told The Hollywood Reporter. “But I think that just as the books do, we want to surprise viewers with the ways in which the stories intersect. Just as the places the characters pop up in very unexpected ways throughout the books, that’s the kind of anthology that we would like to tell. One of the things about the King universe, or multiverse, is that some very strange things can happen when it comes to the ways that the stories unfold, and hopefully there will be surprises along the way in terms of how the anthology works in that way. It’s pretty delicious that Kathy Bates played both Dolores Claiborne and Annie Wilkes, when you really think about that question in the movie adaptations. But I think that there’s something for us about being faithful to the way that Steve does it in the books, that almost feels like the anthology format has already been laid out for us.”

Though anthology series have been done before (American Horror Story being a popular example), the Stephen King multiverse being brought onto the streaming screen is definitely a refreshing sight to see in such a content-saturated market. His stories are compelling in one way or another, and always bring in something crazy to the mix to throw off the audience, leaving them either utterly confused or intrigued enough to come back for more. Season 1 of Castle Rock was well received by audiences all around, starring Andre Holland and Stephen King film alums Bill Skarsgard and Sissy Spacek.

What are your thoughts on the casting? Did you enjoy the first season of Castle Rock? Let us know below in the comments!

No official premiere date has been announced as of yet for the Hulu original series.