Although there are no plans for a third The Haunting season, Mike Flanagan is not opposed to returning to the series in the future if the right conditions are met. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about his upcoming limited-series Midnight Mass, Flanagan explained that he and his producer partner Trevor Macy would need to find the right piece of literature to bring the series back, one that resonates with The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor themes.
When asked if there were any current ideas for a third season of The Haunting, Flanagan repeated what he already said last December: sadly, a third The Haunting anthology is not in his busy plans. However, Flanagan added that a third season could eventually happen if he and Macy found the perfect piece of literature. As Flanagan puts it, “one of the things that define the Haunting anthology for me is that both of them so far are about updating and riffing on existing classic literature.”
Choosing a book is not so simple, though, as a third season of The Haunting would have to reinforce the show’s idea that ghosts are the materialization of human trauma and regrets. According to Flanagan, “if the stars align in such a way that we decide to go back into the Haunting world, it would have to be so much on that track that we’ve set up.” The filmmaker also cohesively resumes the right conditions for a third season by underlining that “it would have to be with the right piece of IP, it would have to be with the right ghost-centric story, and it would have to really fit with Bly and Hill House.”
The Haunting of Hill House, released in 2018, was inspired by author Shirley Jackson‘s gothic horror novel of the same name. In 2020, The Haunting of Bly Manor adapted Henry James‘ The Turn of the Screw. Even if a third season of The Haunting is still a distant dream, Flanagan is set to adapt Christopher Pike’s book The Midnight Club for Netflix next year. His next show, Midnight Mass, will be an original creation that Flanagan says will deal with personal demons related to his experience with religion.
Flanagan‘s wife and frequent collaborator Kate Siegel star in Midnight Mass alongside Zach Gilford, Hamish Linklater, Rahul Abburi, Crystal Balint, Matt Biedel, Alex Essoe, Annarah Cymone, Annabeth Gish, Rahul Kohli, Kristin Lehman, Robert Longstreet, Igby Rigney, Samantha Sloyan, Henry Thomas, and Michael Trucco. The series is executive produced by Flanagan and Macy for Intrepid Pictures.
Midnight Mass will debut worldwide on Netflix on September 24.
Here’s Midnight Mass official synopsis:From The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan, Midnight Mass tells the tale of a small, isolated island community whose existing divisions are amplified by the return of a disgraced young man (Zach Gilford) and the arrival of a charismatic priest (Hamish Linklater). When Father Paul’s appearance on Crockett Island coincides with unexplained and seemingly miraculous events, a renewed religious fervor takes hold of the community – but do these miracles come at a price?
via Collider