CASTLE ROCK Team Teases Bringing (New) MISERY Into Season 2

CASTLE ROCK returns for its second installment on Wednesday, October 23 (with the first three episodes dropping at once on Hulu), and the series feels very, very different.

While season 1 relied on the location and a few key characters from the Castle Rock history, the primary story was a mystery told through original characters. In season 2, the series is centered on an iconic Stephen King character: Annie Wilkes (played here by Lizzy Caplan), in her pre-MISERY days.

“The truth is, [the tone of the season] really starts with Annie,” CASTLE ROCK co-creator Dustin Thomason explains in the video below. “It wasn’t like I sat down to be like, okay, we’re going to do a different tone. Annie started to dictate what that tone was. Stephen wrote her in this very specific way, where she’s this woman out of her time, where she’s this woman who is clearly very clearly passionate about a lot of things. That and that character really started to speak to me and really dictate the terms of what the season could be.”

“I hope it’s a little weirder, a little funnier, a little crazier than season 1 in a way,” he continues. “I think the mystery of season 1 was sort of what kept people going. I hope that it’s Annie’s eccentricity and the fun we can have watching her that keep people going this season.”

Caplan, who transformed her mannerisms to play Annie, admits that Kathy Bates—who portrayed the character in the 1990 film based on King’s novel–inspired a bit of what made its way on-screen in CASTLE ROCK.

“I think one of the most amazing things about Stephen Kings books is the films mean as much to his fans as the books. And especially on CASTLE ROCK, they really marry those two things…if I were a viewer of a new Annie Wilkes story, I would feel kind of ripped off if it didn’t have even a couple of shades of what Kathy Bates did so perfectly.”

But this Annie Wilkes is at a different point in her journey. When CASTLE ROCK’s second season kicks off, Annie is on the run with her daughter, Joy (Elsie Fisher), going from town to town trying to medicate herself—sans an official prescription.

“I like Joy…because she doesn’t feel like a typical Stephen King character,” Fisher—a longtime King fan—says. “She has an innocence about her that we haven’t seen in a lot of his works.”

The nomad life is just starting to take its toll on the young Joy when the season kicks off, as she becomes more and more aware their living arrangements aren’t like the other kids. “Joy is really happy to be with her mom and content with the life she has, because she doesn’t know anything else,” Fisher says. “But definitely right as the season starts, that’s when she really starts thinking about these different things [she hasn’t experienced].”

As the duo settle down in Castle Rock—thanks to a twist of fate—Annie takes a job at a local hospital, where she finds herself on a collision course with the medical director, Nadia (Yusra Warsama). “[Nadia] sees Annie as a conundrum and I think she finds her very intriguing,” Warsama teases. “I think Nadia leads with her heart in terms of compassion and sees her as a woman in need.”

Nadia is also stuck in the middle of the much-teased “warring clans” in season 2, along with her adopted brother Chris Merrill (Matthew Alan).

“My character wasn’t originally in the Stephen King world, so you’ll see him as a new character who is trying to keep the community together,” Alan says. (However, Chris’ on-screen family—”Pop” and “Ace”—are iconic characters in the King literary world.) “His intentions are good…[he’s doing] the best that he can. It’s tough, it’s really tough.”

Check out what else the cast and creative team behind CASTLE ROCK have to tease about the show’s second season…

CASTLE ROCK, Season Premiere, October 23, Hulu

RELATED:

• CASTLE ROCK Season 2 Trailer: Lizzy Caplan’s Annie Wilkes Goes to Drastic Measures
• CASTLE ROCK Season 2 Teaser: Lizzy Caplan’s Annie Wilkes Finds Herself in the Middle of Mayhem
• CASTLE ROCK Season 2: Hulu Sets October Premiere Date
• CASTLE ROCK: Lizzy Caplan, Elsie Fisher, Tim Robbins, Garrett Hedlund, and More Join MISERY-Inspired Season 2
• CASTLE ROCK Season 1 Finale: Dustin Thomason on That Mysterious Smile, Timelines, and Season 2
• Did CASTLE ROCK’s Finale Tease the Season 2 Theme?
• CASTLE ROCK: Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason on Getting the Tone Right in a Stephen King Adaptation
• CASTLE ROCK: ‘The Queen’ is the Best Hour of the Series So Far
• CASTLE ROCK: Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason on the Draw of Small Town Stories, Stephen King’s Blessing
• CASTLE ROCK: Bill Skarsgård on Diving Back into the Stephen King Universe

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