Castle Rock Cancelled by Hulu After Two Seasons

After two seasons, Hulu is reportedly not moving forward with any more seasons of the Stephen King adaptation Castle Rock, according to TVLine. It’s unclear at this time what motivated the decision to not move forward with the program, with it being possible that the coronavirus pandemic impacted the future of the series, in addition to Hulu now being owned by The Walt Disney Company, while previous seasons were developed when the streaming service was still owned by Fox. Sadly, another likely reason for the decision is that, despite having the notoriety of being set in the iconic world of Stephen King, Castle Rock never earned the same buzz as other King adaptations.

What set Castle Rock apart from other adaptations is that, rather than being a direct adaptation of specific stories from the author’s library, it was an amalgam of elements explored across his entire career, blended together to create all-new nightmares. Season Two of the series, for example, saw what happened when Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan) from Misery ended up in the town Jerusalem’s Lot, which was the location of his novel Salem’s Lot and explored a community where vampires had infiltrated to wreak havoc.

This news likely won’t come as much of a surprise to many, as one of the last updates on the project came this past January, which wasn’t particularly promising.

“We have not made any further decisions on Castle Rock, people are still continuing to discover it,” SVP of Original Programming Craig Erwich shared at a Television Critics Association event, per Deadline. “I thought Lizzy Caplan was revelatory in her portrayal of Annie Wilkes, it was a whole new take on the character and it was very brave of her given what Kathy Bates has done [in Misery].”

Luckily, the anthology nature of the series means that both seasons offer entirely contained stories, so whatever plans might have been developing for a new season, audiences won’t be left with unresolved narratives.

Co-creator Dustin Thomason previously weighed in on finding the balance of lifting things from King’s universe while also offering a fresh storyline.

“Part of what we were excited to do, honestly, was to have a show that was a big enough tent that one season, you could have something that felt more like a totally original song in the key of Stephen King, brushing up against his elements,” Thomason shared with ComicBook.com. “Then, sometimes, fill in the margins that felt like an exciting piece of side-story that you never got to see in the book. It really was, from the concept phase, imagined in that way where we would have that leeway. Hopefully part of the exciting thing about each new season, as an anthology, would be that you wouldn’t ever know exactly what to expect, kind of like Stephen’s books.”

Stay tuned for details on the possible future of Castle Rock.

Are you disappointed that the series was cancelled? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!