Lizzy Caplan & Tim Robbins Lead Cast In ‘Castle Rock’ Season 2
Season 2 of Stephen King inspired anthology series ‘Castle Rock‘ has announced its first casting, which sees Lizzy Caplan and Tim Robbins lead alongside Garrett Hedlund, Elsie Fisher, Yusra Warsama, Barkhad Abdi and Matthew Alan.
The drama, which airs on StarzPlay in the UK, combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of King’s best-loved works, weaving an epic saga of darkness and light, played out on a few square miles of Maine woodland. Season 2 will follow a feud between warring clans comes to a boil when budding psychopath Annie Wilkes (Caplan), Stephen King’s nurse from hell, gets waylaid in Castle Rock.
Caplan will play the nurse and super-fan Annie Wilkes, who is battling to overcome mental health issues. Wilkes is the main antagonist in the in King’s 1987 novel Misery, and was memorably played by Kathy Bates in a Oscar-winning performance for the 1990 film adaptation. Caplan is probably best known for her role in ‘Masters of Sex’ as Virginia, but has also recently starred in the TV sequel to the classic ‘Das Boot’. She also has appeared in episodes of ‘New Girl‘ and ‘True Blood’.
Robbins stars as Reginald “Pop” Merrill, the Patriarch of King’s iconic Merrill crime family. Pop is dying of cancer and his nephew, John “Ace” Merrill (played by Garrett Hedlun), is set to take over his businesses. However, this change and Ace’s new approach is threatening a fragile peace with nearby Jerusalem’s Lot. Along with hundreds of tv & film roles, Tim Robbins is no stranger to Stephen King, having played the role of Andy Dufresne in Frank Darabont classic ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. Garrett Hedlun has recently been starring in Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Mosaic’ for HBO, and previously starred in films such as ‘TRON: Legacy’, ‘Pan’ and ‘Mudbound’.
Elsie Fisher is set to portray Joy, Annie’s home-schooled teenage daughter who is starting to question her mother’s sanity (so clearly a good judge of character!) Fisher’s previous work includes providing the voice of Agnes in the ‘Despicable Me’ movies, and has also popped up in shows and film such as ‘Raising Hope’, ‘Eighth Grade’ and ‘Scales: A Mermaids Tale’.
Yusra Warsama will play Dr. Nadia Omar, a Harvard-trained Somali medical director of a rural hospital in Jerusalem’s Lot, who finds himself in a situation which puts his rational and scientific mind to the test. Barkhad Abdi stars as Nadia’s tough, older brother. Abdi leads the charge to build a Somali community centre that will deepen the roots of his people in Maine. Warsama has appeared in episodes of ‘Our Girl’, ‘Cold Feet’, and ‘Call the Midwife’, whilst Abdi is best known for his role as the pirate leader Muse in ‘Captain Phillips’.
Lastly, Matthew Alan will play Chris Merrill, Pop’s other nephew and Ace’s brother, who is struggling to keep peace between the Merrills and the Somali community. Alan is best known for his role as Seth in ’13 Reasons Why’, but has also appeared in shows such as ‘Grey’s Anatomy’, ‘Longmire’, ‘Snowfall’ and ‘Lethal Weapon’.
‘Castle Rock‘ Season 1 is available right now on Amazon Prime channel StarzPlay. Season 2 is due to premiere later this year.
For those of you confused as to what is StarzPlay, it is an addition “add-on” channel you can get via Amazon Prime Video and (from 29th November 2018) Virgin Media. This as an additional service to the main Amazon & Virgin offering, and costs £4.99 a month. The channel is also home to the Brendan Gleeson/Harry Treadaway series ‘Mr. Mercedes‘, and JK Simmons sci-fi series ‘Counterpart‘, so now is an excellent time to subscribe.
