On Friday, Hulu announced that it was developing a new anthology series with J.J. Abrams and Stephen King called Castle Rock with Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions. The series “will weave together characters and themes from those novels that use the Castle Rock location,” while following a different set of characters and plots each season. The production company released the above, seemingly Stranger Things inspired teaser for the series in tandem with the news, which is chock full of references to King’s work.
Now the online streaming platform has confirmed that it has ordered 10 episodes of the first season of Castle Rock and production is set to begin sometime this year. Although no cast or dates have yet been released, we now have a few more scant details on the series.
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 such as “Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption” are either set there or contain references to Castle Rock. Castle Rock is an original suspense/thriller — a first-of-its-kind reimagining that explores the themes and worlds uniting the entire King canon, while brushing up against some of his most iconic and beloved stories.
In addition to those listed above, Castle Rock has been featured or mentioned in dozens of King’s novels and stories, so there certainly is no shortage of material to draw from. Could it be sort of like a Once Upon a Time type of series, only set in the horror universe of Stephen King? It all certainly sounds very intriguing, to say the least.
Hulu previously found success collaborating with King, Abrams, and Bad Robot with 2016’s eight episode miniseries adaptation of King’s novel 11.22.63, starring James Franco.
