“The Haunting of Hill House” quickly became one of Netflix‘s best shows, and the best adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s horror novel. So when it was announced that Mike Flanagan would tell a new ghost story in “The Haunting of Bly Manor” it was cause for excitement, and we finally got our first poster for the upcoming series.
Vanity Fair has the scoop, with an interview with Flanagan himself on what we can expect and how “Bly Manor” will be different than “Hill House.” According to the showrunner, the adaptation of Henry James‘ 1898 novella “The Turn of the Screw” will be less of a family trauma story and more about romance and broken hearts.
“It certainly provides a new way to tell a love story, and there are three of them really that beat at the heart of this season,” Flanagan said. “They all have a very dark edge to them. And by the end, it’s really hard to differentiate tragedy with romance. That sense of romantic longing for someone who meant so much to us—but who’s gone—really is the heart of any ghost story.”
“At its foundation, the Haunting series is very much about haunted spaces and haunted people,” the showrunner continued. “The way we make those things dance together is really going to be what’s uniform about ‘Hill House’ and ‘Bly.’ Outside of that though, it was really important for all of us not to play the same notes we played for the first season. The first season is very much entrenched in family dynamics and death and grief and loss and child trauma. We all collectively felt like we’d said everything we wanted to say about that.”
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Fans of the many background ghosts in the first series should keep an eye out while watching “Bly Manor,” as there will be even more ghosts, but this time they’ll tell a story on their own. “This season we wanted our hidden elements to tell their own story. And very much unlike the first season, they’re actually going to be explained. By the end of the season, you’re going to know who they are and why they’re there.”
Here’s the full poster.
