The Haunting of Hill House star Kate Siegel and director Mike Flanagan welcomed their second child together Monday, and named their new baby after Siegel’s character on the show.
“Today, Kate and I welcomed our daughter, Theodora Isabelle Irene Flanagan, into the world. Mom and baby are both fantastic, tired, and so, so happy,” Flanagan, who directed every episode of the Netflix horror series, announced on Twitter.
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Fans of the show instantly recognized the baby’s name, which is the same as Siegel’s Theodora “Theo” Crain. There was also a Theo character in Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House and in the 1963 film The Haunting, also based on the book.
“THEO HAD A THEO!!! Congratulations to you both,” one fan wrote.
“HER NAME IS THEODORA YES I AM CRYING,” added another.
“I LOVE, love that you named her Theodora. So amazing! Congrats,” added another fan.
Flanagan and Siegel married in 2016 and are also parents to son Cody Paul Flanagan, 2. The couple first worked together on Flanagan’s 2013 film Oculus. Siegel also co-wrote Flanagan’s 2016 film Hush and starred in his other 2016 film, Ouija: Origin of Evil. In 2017, she starred in his Stephen King adaptation Gerald’s Game, which featured her future Hill House co-stars Carla Gugino and Henry Thomas.
Seigel said she found out she was pregnant while filming the acclaimed Hill House episode “Two Storms,” which was edited to feel like one long take during a funeral. In one scene, Siegel, 36, had to fall down.
“I was working out with our stunt coordinator, and we were doing it over and over and over again,” Siegel explained in an interview with SyFy. “And there had been some interesting math with my cycle, so I was like, ‘You know what? I’m just going to take a test to make sure.’ And I told Mike that night, because we were going to be shooting the episode the next day, and the terror in his face was like nothing I had ever seen! He was like, ‘I’ve just been throwing my pregnant wife on the ground all day!’”
Flanagan revealed on Twitter he was “really nervous” every time he saw Siegel fall during filming. “Added a special layer of nerves to the stress of the ep,” he wrote.
While Flanagan and Siegel get some valuable time with their new baby, talk of a second season for The Haunting of Hill House has not stopped. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Gugino endorsed the idea of playing a new character in a second season.
“Mike Flanagan said he would be interested in the notion of an anthology, where some actors come back to play different characters,” Gugino told THR. “Flanagan, I think he feels like he has told the complete story of the Crain family. But if I was invited and I was able to, I would really love to, just because I do love to collaborate with him.”
Photo credit: Netflix
