'Castle Rock' Season 2 Trailer Welcomes You Back To Stephen King Country
Castle Rock season 2 just dropped its first ominous trailer, setting up a whole new season of Stephen King-influenced thrills and chills. This year, the series will feature Annie Wilkes, the demented nurse from King's novel Misery. The trailer below gives us our first look at Lizzy Caplan as the character, as well as some shots of some old familiar places – like Jerusalem's Lot. Watch the Castle Rock season 2 trailer below.
Castle Rock Season 2 Trailer
Ready to head back to Stephen King's cursed town? You better be, because Castle Rock season 2 debuts next month. In this new season, "a feud between warring clans comes to a boil when budding psychopath Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan), Stephen King's nurse from hell, gets waylaid in Castle Rock." Annie Wilkes was previously played by Kathy Bates in Misery – a role that won her an Oscar.
In addition to Caplan's Wilkes, Castle Rock season 2 features Eighth Grade breakout Elsie Fisher a Joy Wilkes, Annie's daughter, a character who doesn't exist in King's Misery novel. Tim Robbins also stars as Reginald "Pop" Merrill, a character from the King short story The Sun Dog. In that story, Pop owns a junk shop. But in Castle Rock, he's described as "the dying head of the Merrill crime family." Robbins previously appeared in King-based movie The Shawshank Redemption. Paul Sparks plays John "Ace" Merrill, Pop's nephew who appeared in King's The Body – the inspiration for Stand By Me – and Needful Things. Here, he "stands to take over the family business." Kiefer Sutherland played Ace in Stand By Me.
Other cast members include Yusra Warsama as Dr. Nadia Omar, "a Somali doctor employed as the Medical Director at the hospital in Jerusalem's Lot." Barkhad Abdi as Abdi Omar, "Nadia's older brother who wants to strengthen Somali ties in their community." And Matthew Alan as Chris Merrill, "Ace's brother who finds himself stuck between the feud between the Merrills and the Somali community."
I'm a big Stephen King nerd, and I mostly enjoyed the first season of Castle Rock. It had a lot going for it, but it didn't quite stick the landing. I am excited that the show is taking an anthology approach, though, and telling a new King-inspired story every season.
Castle Rock season 2 debuts on Hulu October 23.
A psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse, Castle Rock combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King's best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland. The fictional Maine town of Castle Rock has figured prominently in King's literary career: Cujo, The Dark Half, IT and Needful Things, as well as novella The Body and numerous short stories (Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption) are set in there. Castle Rock is an original suspense/thriller — a first-of-its-kind reimagining that unites King's themes and worlds, and brings together the author's most iconic and beloved characters.