Frank Langella, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, Mark Hamill and Carl Lumbly will star in Mike Flanagan’s new Edgar Allen Poe-inspired Netflix series “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Haunting of Hill House” creator Mike Flanagan revealed Thursday.
Described as “a modern remix of some of the most iconic works of Edgar Allan Poe” and an “epic tale of greed, horror, and tragedy,” the eight-episode series will feature “the largest ensemble cast in the history of Intrepid Pictures,” Flanagan tweeted Thursday.
Per Flanagan, Langella will play Roderick Usher, “the towering patriarch of the Usher dynasty,” McDonnell is set as Madeline Usher, “Roderick’s twin sister and the hidden hand of the Usher dynasty,” Lumbly is taking on “Poe’s legendary investigator C. Auguste Dupin,” and Hamill has been cast as “a character surprisingly at home in the shadows.” Gugino’s role was not disclosed.
Additional cast for “The Fall of the House of Usher” will be announced Friday. Production on the series will begin in a few weeks.
“The Fall of the House of Usher” was ordered to series in October at Netflix, where Flanagan and his producing partner Trevor Macy have an overall deal and previously produced “The Haunting of Hill House” and followup “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” as well as the limited series “Midnight Mass” and the upcoming “The Midnight Club.”
Flanagan told TheWrap in November that when you see “The Fall of the House of Usher,” which does not yet have a premiere date, “you’ll see it is not at all of the DNA of the ‘Haunting’ series.”
“It’s very much its own thing tonally, thematically. It’s something we’ve actually never done before,” Flanagan told TheWrap. “And so, it felt like we would be limiting it, in an unfortunate way, if we tried to shove it into that ‘Haunting’ shoebox. It very much is its own crazy, over-the-top, insane, beautiful, macabre, just wicked thing that is so different.”
“The Fall of the House of Usher” is created by Flanagan, who executive produces alongside longtime producing partner Trevor Macy of Intrepid Pictures, as well as Emmy Grinwis and Michael Fimognari. Flanagan and Fimognari will each direct four of the episodes in the eight-episode show.