Despite the overwhelming success of The Haunting of Hill House and Haunting of Bly Manor on Netflix, creator Mike Flanagan revealed there are “no plans” to make follow-up seasons in the horror anthology series. In response to a fan of the show inquiring about a subsequent season after Bly Manor‘s October release, Flanagan tweeted Wednesday, “At the moment there are no plans for more chapters.”
“Never say never, of course, but right now we are focused on a full slate of other [Intrepid Pictures] projects for 2021 and beyond. If things change we will absolutely let everyone know!” he continued. The showrunner added in the replies to a fan who suggested “The Legend of Hell House” as a possible inspiration for future Haunting chapters, “Those rights are spoken for, we looked into it a few years ago. Agree, it’s terrific.”
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The Netflix horror anthology series has been a hit for the streaming giant, debuting the first season in 2018 with a horror-filled tale starring Carla Gugino and Timothy Hutton. In Season 2, Flanagan’s team adapted Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw” into a Gothic romance, with much of the original cast returning in new roles. Following the success of the series, Flanagan and his producing partner, Trevor Macy, were signed to a deal with Netflix in 2019, which gave a seven-episode series order to a new supernatural show from the pair, titled, Midnight Mass.
Starring Zach Gilford, Kate Siegel and Hamish Linklater, Midnight Mass follows an isolated island community that experiences strange and frightening events after the arrival of a mysterious young priest. Flanagan is slated to direct all the episodes. While fans of the Haunting series were disappointed Wednesday at Flanagan’s news, many tweeted their excitement for the upcoming project. “I’m hoping for another haunting chapter in the future, but in the mean time i’ll be looking forward to midnight mass!!” one person wrote, as another chimed in, “I’m so excited for midnight mass!! if another haunting does end up in the future, it will be loved of course!”
Flanagan and Macy told Entertainment Weekly after Bly Manor’s premiere that they would be interested in exploring the nature of ghosts if given another season of the Haunting anthology. “A ghost is an impact from the past on the present in every ghost story. That’s all it really is, no matter how you dress it up,” Flanagan said at the time. “A ghost is simply an element of the past that refuses to live in the past and instead just encroaches upon the present that it alters the present. It changes the trajectory of the person who’s experiencing that little piece of the past… That link between memory and ghosts and between ghosts and the past, that is the lifeblood of the show.”
