With The Fall of the House of Usher still tearing it up on Netflix’s daily Top 10 TV Shows (while still holding its spot as my new favorite horror series), creator Mike Flanagan is busy putting together his next high-profile horror-tinged project: the Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck. From the jump, the director revealed an A+ cast list was already being put together, as led by the likes of Tom Hiddleston and Mark Hamill, with Oculus vet Karen Gillan, Before I Wake’s Jacob Tremblay and Chiwetel Ejiofor heading up the second casting announcement. Now, a smorgasbord of new stars have been revealed, including even more regulars from Flanagan’s films and shows.
The Life of Chuck is being adapted from the multi-novella collection If It Bleeds, specifically Stephen King’s three-act story of the same name. Tom Hiddleston will be taking on the lead role of Charles “Chuck” Krantz, and there’s no shortage of excellent supporting actors set to join the Loki star. Flanagan took to X with a message about how personal this project is to him, as well as some clarification about how the independent film is being produced in agreement with SAG-AFTRA.
And then he let loose with all the exciting new additions to the ensemble, with arguably my favorite of the bunch being Nightmare on Elm Street scream queen Heather Langenkamp, who is partnering back up with Mike Flanagan and several other cast members after 2022’s Christopher Pike adaptation The Midnight Club. I’m also excited to see The Haunting of Hill House actress Saidah Arrika Ekulona returning to the filmmaker’s universe. Check out all the newly announced familiar faces that will fill out Chuck’s life.
- Annalise Basso
- Matt Biedel
- Saidah Arrika Ekulona
- Rahul Kohli
- Heather Langenkamp
- Carl Lumbly
- Violet McGraw
- Molly C. Quinn
- Sauriyan Sapkota
- Kate Siegel
- Samantha Sloyan
- Michael Trucco
Several talents from that list was also invovled with The Fall of the House of Usher, save for the aforementioned Langenkamp and Ekulona. (Violet McGraw and Annalise Basso were also absent.) But just as Mark Hamill was a new entry to this stable of performers as Arthur Pym, The Life of Chuck will be welcoming several new and known faces to its ranks, including a well-known horror vet.
That's right, fans can look forward to seeing Scream, Scooby-Doo and Five Nights at Freddy's vet Matthew Lillard getting his Flanagan/King fix for the new movie. Here's the full lineup of other non-reuniting cast members.
- Trinity Jo-Li Bliss
- Antonio Raul Corbo
- David Dastmalchian
- Taylor Gordon
- Harvey Guillén
- Q'Orianka Kilcher
- Matthew Lillard
- Benjamin Pajak
- Mia Sara
If we could just get the rest of the What We Do in the Shadows cast to join Harvey Guillén in The Life of Chuck, that'd be awesome. But even if not, I can't wait to see how Guillén factors into the story.
Mike Flanagan confirmed that The Life of Chuck went into production in Alabama earlier in October, though without a specific release date set at the moment. Check out all the upcoming horror movies that are on the way in the meantime, and don't forget The Fall of the House of Usher is available to stream in full with a Netflix subscription.
