The notion of integrating the worlds of horror novelist Stephen King’s stories may have taken a bit of a hit with the underwhelming performance of The Dark Tower movie, but the first trailer for Hulu’s Castle Rock television series suggests that the small screen might hold the key to weaving all of those universes together.
Hulu debuted the first trailer for Castle Rock during its panel at New York Comic Con, and the sneak peek at the series manages to cram in a surprising amount of references — both obvious and subtle — to some of King’s most famous works. The most overt nod to one of King’s stories is likely the final scene in the trailer, which reveals the door of a car from the “Shawshank Department of Corrections” — the setting for the novella Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.
Set in the multiverse of stories that also includes Cujo and a long list of other scary tales penned by King, Castle Rock promises to weave elements from many of those tales together as the backdrop for a more intimate, character-focused series set in the fictional region of Maine that has hosted so many of those stories. Along with The Knick and Moonlight actor André Holland in a lead role, the series’s cast also features a pair of actors who previously starred in adaptations of King’s work, Carrie star Sissy Spacek and It actor Bill Skarsgård, who plays Pennywise the Clown in the recent horror hit.
The supporting cast of the series includes Heavenly Creatures and Two and a Half Men actress Melanie Lynskey, Evil Dead and Don’t Breathe actress Jane Levy, Lost actor Terry O’Quinn, and Daredevil and The Defenders actor Scott Glenn. In another nod to the interconnected universe of the series, Glenn portrays Alan Pangborn, the sheriff from The Dark Half and Needful Things who was previously portrayed by Michael Rooker and Ed Harris in those respective films.
While the featured cast members on the series and its source material have generated significant buzz, the show has a lot going on behind the camera, too. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Television and J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions, with Abrams serving as an executive producer alongside show developers Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason, as well as Ben Stephenson and Liz Glotzer.
There’s no official premiere date listed for Castle Rock at this point, but the series is expected to debut on Hulu in 2018.
