Haunting of Hill House Season 3 Not Planned Says Director
The Haunting of Hill House and Bly Manor creator Mike Flanagan says there are no plans for a third season. Flanagan has made a name for himself as a master of the horror genre over the last few years. In addition to his Netflix anthology series, the director has made cult hits Ouija: Origin of Evil, Hush, Gerald's Game, and The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep. His most famous project, though, is his two-season anthology series for Netflix.
The Haunting of Hill House premiered in 2018 to critical acclaim and commercial success for the streamer. Critics lauded the series as a true horror masterpiece. Its follow-up came out this year. The Haunting of Bly Manor hit Netflix in October and similarly received critical acclaim. The follow-up was considerably different than its predecessor but loved nonetheless. An estimated 1.2 billion minutes of the show were watched when it debuted on the streamer.
Despite all this success, Flanagan revealed that there are currently no plans to make a third season. The director was responding to a hopeful fan inquiring about more seasons of the show. Flanagan does not rule out the possibility of another entry in the future but says he is focused on other projects right now. Most of those projects are through his Intrepid Pictures studio, which he runs.
Flanagan's statement is disappointing. Both seasons of the show represented a genuine shift in horror television. While horror movies have experienced a renaissance over the past decade, horror shows have still been mostly hit or miss. It's difficult to maintain tension and scares over eight to ten hour-long episodes. Flanagan pulls this off deftly, with The Haunting of Hill House truly delivering on both scares and dysfunctional family drama.
The Haunting of Bly Manor wasn't as terrifying as Hill House, but that was by design. The story was more meditative, ruminating on love, and loss. The ghost story was simply a backdrop for the emotional tale the season was telling. Flanagan nailed the ending once again, leaving fans an emotional wreck in its wake. Surprisingly, Netflix wouldn't immediately begin work on a third one after the second season's massive success. Flanagan is a regular Netflix collaborator, though, and with the director leaving the door open for more, it seems like it's just a matter of when, not if.
Source: Mike Flanagan