Mike Flanagan's upcoming series Midnight Mass was covertly featured in two of his movies. It is a major Easter egg that first appeared several years before the project was officially announced, which could mean that the director had been planning this project long before he became a household name for his The Haunting series or 2019's Doctor Sleep. Here's where Midnight Mass appears in Hush and Gerald's Game, what it could mean for the upcoming series, and what Easter eggs such as these could indicate about other future projects from Mike Flanagan.
The home invasion horror movie Hush stars Kate Siegel, Flanagan's wife as well as a recurring actor in several of his projects. In Hush, Siegel plays Madison "Maddie" Young, a deaf woman and a horror author whose latest book project is titled Midnight Mass. It is revealed when a friend returns a copy that includes pieces of a plot summary on the back, which includes "But the 512 souls on sleepy Crocket" and "church put Riley face to face with a terrifying secret." A year after Hush, Flanagan adapted Stephen King's novel, Gerald's Game. In the movie adaptation, Carla Gugino portrays the lead character, Jessie Burlingame. Gugino starred alongside Siegel in 2018's The Haunting Of Hill House and its follow-up, 2020's The Haunting Of Bly Manor. In Gerald's Game, Jessie is left handcuffed to a bed after her husband unexpectedly dies while they are staying at an isolated lake house. As she reaches above her, a copy of Midnight Mass appears on the shelf.
These appearances are no mere coincidence, especially considering the fact that Kate Siegel will star in Midnight Mass along with another The Haunting series alum, Henry Thomas. With the news that filming on Midnight Mass has officially wrapped, the theory of a Flanagan universe developing from it has begun to spread. It isn't improbable, and it may be that Midnight Mass is exactly what the director needs to create such a universe, but there are several other factors to consider with these Easter eggs.
Mike Flanagan's Easter eggs and references seem to be intended as a precursor for what's to come in the future of his movie and TV projects. For example, Flanagan included a story in the very beginning of The Haunting Of Bly Manor that alludes to The Haunting season 3 taking inspiration from Charlotte Brontë's Villette. While it is entirely possible that he won't take this route in the future, it is unlikely that anything he includes is unimportant or won't factor in to a later project. When Midnight Mass first appeared in Hush, it didn't seem like much, as it is not a real novel. Once a copy was featured in Gerald's Game, it became evident that it might factor in somewhere, but several years elapsed before an official announcement came.
Being that Carla Gugino and Kate Siegel are staples to his work, their individual storylines in his movies and television shows could allude to further connections and plotlines in Midnight Mass. Considering that the Lady of the Lake (Siegel) in The Haunting Of Bly Manor killed a vicar, there's an immediate connection between the actor and the religious aspects of the upcoming series. It may foreshadow Siegel's role in the series, as much is still relatively unknown. While Gugino hasn't been listed as a cast member, the fact that she was so isolated in Gerald's Game may contribute to another character's experience with isolation in Midnight Mass. The series' story won't likely make mention of either movie, as it solely exists as a book in their respective cinematic universes. However, it is entirely plausible that similar instances could be described as a form of fear mongering to keep people isolated on the island.
While the Easter eggs in Hush and Gerald's Game allude to an interconnected universe and worked as a way to foreshadow his future project, the actors and their roles may be more indicative of what transpires in the series. The only possible way they could truly exist in the same universe is if Maddie's novel was a memoir about her time spent in isolation being manipulated by a charismatic priest. Therefore, the events in Midnight Mass may not take place on the same timeline, though it's entirely possible that Maddie's horror novel was inspired by true events. There are still several ways that they could be connected, but it will remain unclear until the series premieres in the near future.