Responding to a fan question on Twitter, The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor showrunner Mike Flannigan indicated that there are no current plans for a third installment of his Netflix Haunting horror anthology. Of course, Flannigan left the door open for a return to the project, but admitted that his focus has been on upcoming series The Midnight Mass and The Midnight Club.
The two upcoming horror series were part of an overall deal that Flannigan struck with Netflix after the “sleeper” success of The Haunting of Hill House in 2018, via Entertainment Weekly. Turning Haunting into a horror anthology series was part of Flannigan’s Netflix deal, which he delivered in 2020’s installment The Haunting of Bly Manor.
Comicbook credits Flannigan’s detailed involvement and passion for the series’ quality, as well as its lengthy hiatuses. Fans had to wait two years between The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, in part because of the show’s laborious production process. While Falnnigan only directed the pilot episode of The Haunting of Bly Manor, he directed every episode of the flagship series The Haunting of Hill House. “By the time that you’ve got to the end of any of these shoots, you don’t even want to think about what’s going to come next. You just want to go to sleep,” actor Oliver Jackson-Cohen (The Invisible Man), who appeared in both seasons of the horror anthology series, is quoted via Comicbook.
Entertainment Weekly draws comparisons between Flannigan and David Fincher’s (Gone Girl, Zodiac) work on Mindhunter, citing the successful impact of both directors exhaustively comprehensive work for Netflix. “Fincher noted his fatigue in making the high-quality production,” Entertainment Weekly equates Flannigan’s recent statement to the remarks from Fincher regarding Mindhunter “but left the door open to return if he ever felt compelled.”
Much like Fincher, Flannigan certainly left the door open to return to his Haunting anthology one day. According to Jackson-Cohen, Flannigan spent the break between the anthology seasons perfecting the story and differentiating it from The Haunting of Hill House, via Comicbook. A mix of burn-out from the initial series and thoughtful rumination proved effective as The Haunting of Bly Manor was able to tell a unique and ghostly love story that proved successful with critics and audiences.
Since the break between The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor was two years, Comicbook points out that a 2022 or 2023 installment “wouldn’t break from the release strategy of the series” thus far. So, even with nothing currently planned, this gives Flannigan plenty of time to revisit the series and remain on a regular schedule, if he feels so inclined.
Short horror fiction stories The Haunting of Hill House and The Turn of the Screw served as the basis for the show’s two respective seasons. If Flannigan decided to include a third chapter in his horror anthology, it’s likely the voice of a classic horror author would be invoked as an inspirational jumping-off point. Entertainment Weekly reports that Flannigan has expressed interest in exploring the concept and definition of the term “ghost”. However, the director may be just as likely to explore this premise in upcoming horror projects The Midnight Mass and The Midnight Club as he would be in another installment of Haunting.
At the moment, it appears that The Haunting of Bly Manor will be the last entry in Flannigan’s Haunting horror anthology at Netflix.