Hill House actor Oliver Jackson-Cohen is joining Vitoria Pedretti in the cast for the upcoming season, The Haunting of Bly Manor. Mike Flangan's The Haunting of Hill House series was a big hit for Netflix last year, dramatically re-imagining Shirley Jackson's source material to positive effect. The streaming giant has since announced that the show is becoming an anthology and will base its second season, Bly Manor, on Henry James' famous 1898 horror novella, The Turn of the Screw. As a result, the next installment will feature all-new characters and settings.
What it won't feature, thankfully, is a completely new cast. Just last month, it was announced that Hill House breakout Victoria Pedretti is returning to star in Bly Manor, with Flanagan once again calling the shots as director. While plot details are mostly being kept under-wraps for now, it has been confirmed that Pedretti will headline Bly Manor as Dani, a young governess who is hired to care for two "very unusual" children at the eponymous (and, possibly, haunted for real) estate.
The Wrap is reporting that Jackson-Cohen will star opposite Pedretti in Bly Manor as Peter, an individual who's described as simply being a "charming fellow". Peter is also said to be a leading character and will reportedly interact with Dani directly while she's working at her (creepy) new job.
It's only fitting that Jackson-Cohen and Pedretti reunite for Bly Manor; the pair played twin siblings Luke and Eleanor "Nell" on The Haunting of Hill House, and their characters shared a special connection that made it all the harder for them to recover from their traumatic childhood experiences when their family lived in Hill House. As impressive as the Hill House cast was overall, Jackson-Cohen and Pedretti had, in some ways, the most challenging roles and really stood out among the talented ensemble for it. Filmmakers have clearly taken notice of them too, as evidenced by Jackson-Cohen having also been recently cast as The Invisible Man in Universal's reboot.
Now that Jackson-Cohen and Pedretti are back for Bly Manor, though, it will be interesting to see what other Hill House cast members end up returning for this new installment. Carla Gugino, who played Luke and Nell's mother Olivia, has confirmed that she and Flangan (who've worked together multiple times already) have discussed it, so there's a real possibly that she too will sign on down the line. Who knows: if there are enough roles to go around and things work out scheduling-wise, the entire Crain family may yet reunite for a second round of Haunting together.
The Haunting of Bly Manor premieres on Netflix in 2020.
Source: The Wrap