'Castle Rock' Season 2 Will Be Inspired By 'Misery', With Lizzy Caplan, Tim Robbins And Elsie Fisher Starring
Ready to head back to Castle Rock? The second season of the Stephen King-inspired Hulu series has just announced its cast, and the King work from which it'll be drawing influence. King's 1987 novel Misery will serve as a jumping-off point for season 2, with Lizzy Caplan set to play deranged nurse Annie Wilkes – a role made famous by Kathy Bates in the Misery film adaptation. Other new cast members include Tim Robbins, Elsie Fisher, and Garrett Hedlund. More on the Castle Rock season 2 cast below.
THR has the news about the Castle Rock season 2 cast, and storyline. Per their report, "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." Tim Robbins will play "Reginald "Pop" Merrill, the famed patriarch of King's iconic crime family who is dying of cancer and at a reckoning with his family," with Garret Hedlund taking on the role of "John "Ace" Merrill, the town of Castle Rock's legendary bully who is taking over his uncle Pop's business and threatening a fragile peace with nearby Jerusalem's Lot." Matthew Alan portrays Chris Merrill, "Pop's nephew and Ace's brother who struggles to keep peace between the Merrills and the Somali community."
Pop Merrill is a character who appears in King's short story The Sun Dog. Ace Merrill, his nephew, is featured in both The Body (the story that inspired Stand By Me), and Needful Things (Kiefer Sutherland played the character in Stand By Me). Chris Merrill is a new character invented for the show.
Elsewhere in the cast, Yusra Warsama will play "Dr. Nadia Omar, the Harvard-trained Somali medical director of a rural hospital in Jerusalem's Lot whose rational and scientific mind will be put to the test," and Barkhad Abdi portrays "Abdi Omar, Nadia's tough, older brother who leads the charge to build a Somali community center that will deepen the roots of his people in Maine." These characters are not from any King novel or story I can recall.
As for Eighth Grade breakout Elsie Fisher, she'll be playing "Annie's home-schooled teenage daughter who is starting to have questions about her mother's sanity." The Annie Wilkes in King's Misery doesn't have a daughter, so this version of Annie will likely be quite different from the one we're used to. In Misery, Annie is a lonely nurse who holds her favorite author hostage, and demands he write a new book just for her.
I loved almost all of Castle Rock, except the final episode, which didn't quite stick the landing. But as a Stephen King fan, it's hard to resist this show, and I love the anthology nature they're taking, where each season will tell a whole new story.