Streaming service Hulu has officially announced the cancellation of Castle Rock, a horror anthology TV series based on the works of beloved author Stephen King. Castle Rock first debuted in 2018, with a second season airing in in 2019. Hulu’s announcement comes following nearly an entire year of silence regarding the future of the show.
Castle Rock tells the story of life in the titular fictional Maine town, which has featured as the setting in a number of King novels, including The Dead Zone, Cujo, Needful Things, and The Body (which was later adapted into the award-winning film Stand By Me). While the first season of the show featured a number of Castle Rock residents from King’s novels, including retired Sheriff Alan Pangborn (Scott Glenn) and bully Ace Merilll (Paul Sparks), it primarily focused on original plots only lightly inspired by King. The second season attempted to rectify this by introducing Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan), the controlling, possibly insane nurse from the novel Misery, but met with only limited success.
Although the show contained plenty of hidden references for King fans to catch – including the town of Jerusalem’s Lot and the appearance of Sissy Spacek, who played Carrie White in the film of the same name – it failed to gain traction among King enthusiasts and received generally negative reviews.
Despite Hulu’s rejection, executive producer J. J. Abrams, who developed the show under his Bad Robots Production label, has other King projects planned for the future. He is currently working with Warner Brothers TV to create a series centered around the Overlook Hotel, the infamous haunted hotel which serves as the setting of King’s novel The Shining. The show, which is tentatively titled “Overlook,” is expected to premiere via streaming service HBO Max.
Other King-based projects remain available to watch on Hulu, including the critically acclaimed limited series 11.22.63, which tells the story of a man who travels back in time in an attempt to prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
