The Haunting of Bly Manor Casts Hill House Star Henry Thomas

In case you haven’t heard, Netflix is bringing back Mike Flanagan‘s celebrated horror series The Haunting of Hill House for a second season. Well okay, that’s only half true. The series has been renewed and Flanagan is delivering another season to the streaming service in 2020, but it will be a completely different story this time around. The next season will be called The Haunting of Bly Manor and it will focus on a new set of characters and circumstances. That said, Flanagan is still bringing back many of his Hill House stars in new roles, a la American Horror Story.

Flanagan announced on Tuesday that Henry Thomas would be starring in The Haunting of Bly Manor. Thomas is best known as Elliott in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial but he also played the young version of Hugh Crain in The Haunting of Hill House, the patriarch of the central family. He will join fellow Hill House stars Victoria Pedretti and Oliver Jackson-Cohen in Bly Manor.

“I’m beyond thrilled to announce that the inestimable, irreplaceable, invaluable Henry Thomas has joined the cast of THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR,” Flanagan wrote in a tweet.

The creator and director followed that up with the announcement that even more casting announcements about the second installment of his anthology series will be made in the coming days.

“I’ll be making more BLY MANOR casting announcements here tomorrow and Friday,” he added. “Stay tuned!”

For this second season, Flanagan will be adapting Henry James’ gothic horror novella, The Turn of the Screw. During an interview earlier this month, Flanagan explained that this new installment will be even scarier than The Haunting of Hill House.

“For Henry James fans, it’s going to be pretty wild, and for people who aren’t familiar with his work, it’s going to be unbelievably scary,” Flanagan said. “I already think it’s much scarier than season one, so I’m very excited about it.”

The creator will also be pulling in various elements from James’ other works, combining them with the tale of The Turn of the Screw.

“We’re looking at all the ghost stories of Henry James as the jumping-off point for the season, so it very much is a whole new deal,” Flanagan added. “It’s a cool way to expand on some of the things I loved about Season One, but within the framework of a new story, without having to be restrained by the decisions we made last time.”

Are you looking forward to The Haunting of Bly Manor? What other cast members from Hill House do you want to see return? Let us know in the comments!

The Haunting of Bly Manor is expected to be released on Netflix in 2020.