The Haunting of Bly Manor tells a self-contained story about an old English estate, two orphaned children, and the au pair who is determined to protect them - but could Bly Manor continue in season 2? Here's what we know so far about the future of the series.

Created by Mike Flanagan, The Haunting of Bly Manor is a spiritual sequel to the 2018 miniseries The Haunting of Hill House. Though the plots of the two shows aren't directly connected, both are about "haunted houses and haunted people," and have both thematic and aesthetic connections - from the central setting of an old house with a dark history, to the ghosts cleverly hidden in the background of some scenes.

Related: The Haunting of Bly Manor: Every Easter Egg & Hill House Reference

Based on The Turn of the Screw and other stories by Henry James, The Haunting of Bly Manor's ending - much like the ending of Hill House - is bittersweet and a bit of a tearjerker. So, can audiences expect to see The Haunting of Bly Manor season 2 and, if so, what will the story be about?

The Haunting Of Bly Manor Season 2 Release

The Biggest Unanswered Questions After The Haunting of Bly Manor Flora

The Haunting of Bly Manor season 2 isn't going to happen, since it was intended as a standalone story as part of a horror anthology series, but The Haunting can be expected to continue with a third series. Both The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor were hugely popular hits for Netflix, so while another season hasn't yet been officially announced, it's likely that we'll get another Haunting series in October 2022, in keeping with the production time and release dates of the first two entries.

The Haunting of Bly Manor Season 2 Story Details

The Haunting of Bly Manor Bride

While it's very likely that there'll be another series of The Haunting, it won't be The Haunting of Bly Manor season 2. The story wraps up very conclusively, with most of the ghosts plaguing Bly Manor finally freed and only one ghost - the lady of the lake - remaining. The epilogue, like the prologue, takes place 20 years after the main events of the series, with a touching final scene that ties together both the ghost story and love story elements of the series. Speaking to Games Radar with regards to a Haunting of Hill House sequel in 2019, Flanagan said that he has no intention of serializing these stories into multiple seasons:

"It will be a totally new story... It was important to me that we told that story to its conclusion in the first season. I didn't want to cynically repeat ourselves, and the actors didn’t want to either. This frees us up because, in theory, in this anthology format, every season can be its own exploration of another classic piece of horror literature. Actors can stay or go depending on their preference and their availability. That opens it up to new cast and new chances for existing actors. I love that format. It would be quite a disappointment to have to revisit the Crains. It would rob them of the closure they got at the end of that season."

The good news is that this means The Haunting season 3 can feature actors from Bly Manor, regardless of how their characters' stories ended. Bly Manor itself brought back Henry Thomas, Victoria Pedretti, Kate Siegel, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Carla Gugino and Katie Parker from The Haunting of Hill House, so the next series could cast some or all of those actors, as well as other Hill House alums like Michiel Huisman and Elizabeth Reaser. In that respect, it can feel like a continuation even with all new characters. As for the story, there are many possibilities; Flanagan could adapt a single story, like The Haunting of Hill House, or a mix of ghost stories from the same author, like The Haunting of Bly Manor. But no matter which work it adapts, expect the next season of The Haunting to tell a brand new chilling story.

More: Every Hidden Ghost You Missed In The Haunting Of Bly Manor