Castle Rock at NYCC 2019: Salem’s Lot Versus Misery

For fans of Stephen King, Hulu’s anthology series Castle Rock is the gift that keeps on giving. The titular town is featured often in King’s works (such as The Dead Zone, The Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me, Needful Things), as are many of the locations (like Shawshank) and themes explored in the show. The cast of season 2 dropped by New York Comic Con last weekend to tease what we can expect when the series returns on October 23.

Executive produced by King and J.J. Abrams, Castle Rock – like American Horror Story – features a different cast and a different story every season, though each season features a few actors who have starred in existing adaptations as a sort of “wink-wink-nudge-nudge” to fans. Sissy Spacek (Carrie) and Bill Skarsgard (IT Chapters 1 and 2) were in season 1; Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption) will be in season 2.

Season 2 will introduce a notable new location – Jerusalem’s Lot (aka Salem’s Lot), a neighboring town – and will also feature some very familiar characters, with Lizzy Caplan portraying an alternate universe Annie Wilkes, the main character from Misery.

Lizzy Caplan (Annie Wilkes), Elsie Fisher (Joy), Tim Robbins (Reginald “Pop” Merrill), Paul Sparks (John “Ace” Merrill), Matthew Alan (Chris Merrill), Yusra Warsama (Dr. Nadia Omar), Barkhad Abdi (Abdi Omar), and Dustin Thomason (Co-Creator and Executive Producer) were on hand to talk about the upcoming season 2. I was fortunate enough to be in the press room prior to the screening and cast Q&A at the Hulu Theater and was able to speak to almost the entire cast about whether or not they were fans of the first season (Caplan was, Warsama didn’t want it to affect her performance), if they’re at all like their characters, and what it’s like to step into such iconic stories.

Check out our interviews below!

Castle Rock Season 2 premieres on Hulu on Wednesday, October 23.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

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