New ‘Castle Rock’ Trailer Offers ‘Cujo’ and ‘IT’ Connections

The upcoming TV series Castle Rock takes place in the iconic Maine town that helps unify a variety of Stephen King stories, with this new narrative combining both new and familiar characters for a horrifying adventure. An all-new trailer for the series debuted, which features nods to multiple King stories, including IT, Cujo, and more. Check out the trailer above and tune in to the series premiere on July 25th.

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.

Not only does the narrative of the new series feature multiple references to King stories, but it also brings together veterans of previous King adaptations, like Carrie‘s Sissy Spacek and IT‘s Bill Skarsgard and Chosen Jacobs.

King has always been a popular realm for horror adaptations, though this project could be the most unique and ambitious approach yet. Co-creator Dustin Thomason recently detailed how he developed the idea.

“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. Who stays in a place like that?” Thomason shared with Entertainment Weekly.

Co-creator Sam Shaw then pointed out that, while King regularly incorporates supernatural elements into his stories, the core concept of the show involvement imprisonment.

“When we returned to his library, a lot of his stories about prison and justice were really compelling to us…They’re the closest things to true-life monster stories that we tell ourselves as a culture,” Shaw pointed out. “How do we assign blame? How do we reckon with the idea of evil and whether we believe in it?”

The first three episodes of Castle Rock debut on July 25th.

How many King references did you spot in the trailer? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!

[H/T YouTube, Hulu]