Throughout much of author Stephen King‘s career, the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine has tied together a majority of his stories to create a massive shared universe. The new Hulu series Castle Rock takes place in the iconic locale, though the author claims the show is more enjoyable if you aren’t comparing it to his recognizable stories.
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The author warned, “Castle Rock is really good, each episode better than the last. But put all that Easter egg stuff aside and just enjoy it on its own terms. The cast is incandescent and they support a story worth telling.”
Arguably the biggest selling point of the series is that it connects to a variety of King stories, with our own review of the series noting that it can be frustrating to watch the show on its own merits without seeking out all the ways in which it connects to wider King lore. It’s possible that other viewers reported similar issues, resulting in King’s disclaimer above.
A psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse, Castle Rock combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland. The fictional Maine town of Castle Rock has figured prominently in King’s literary career: Cujo, The Dark Half, IT and Needful Things, as well as novella The Body and numerous short stories such as Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption are either set there or contain references to Castle Rock. Castle Rock is an original suspense/thriller — a first-of-its-kind reimagining that explores the themes and worlds uniting the entire King canon, while brushing up against some of his most iconic and beloved stories.
The series’ showrunners, Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason, have previously revealed that their original plan for the series was a King-inspired mystery, with the ultimate approval from the author allowing them to rework some of their initial concepts.
“Our intention was always to tell an original story in the tune of Stephen King…The germ of the idea was to think about the kinds of people who have the grit to stick it out in a place that’s been terrorized over and over again,” Thomason shared with Entertainment Weekly. “Who stays in a place like that?”
New episodes of the series debut on Wednesdays.
Do you think it’s hard to put the Stephen King Easter eggs out of your mind while watching Castle Rock? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!
[H/T Twitter, StephenKing]
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