Hot off the heels of Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan has announced several new cast members for his next Netflix project, The Fall of the House of Usher. The writer and director took to Twitter last week to rattle off a who’s who of cast members for the show. Some standouts include Frank Langella as recluse Roderick Usher, Mary McDonnell as his sister Madeline Usher, Carl Lumbly as investigator C. Auguste Dupin, and Mark Hamill in an undisclosed role.
Flanagan will adapt The Fall of the House of Usher from the 1839 gothic short story by Edgar Allen Poe. Flanagan is no stranger to literary horror adaptations. He has previously created the Netflix shows The Haunting of Hill House, adapted from the Shirley Jackson novel of the same name, and The Haunting of Bly Manor, adapted from the work of Henry James. He also directed Doctor Sleep, adapted from the Stephen King novel of the same title.
As for The Fall of the House of Usher, the Poe store tells the tale of the titular Usher family, or rather the last two surviving members, Roderick and Madeline. Suffering from illness, they’re visited by an old friend of Roderick’s, who serves as the narrator. Upon his arrival, he notices a crack that extends from the roof of the house all the way down to the base. Nevertheless, he agrees to stay there in the hopes of helping the family.
Like previous Flanagan adaptations, the show will draw from various works by the original author. C. Auguste Dupin doesn’t appear in the original short story, but instead comes from various other stories by Poe. Mark Hamill could also be playing a character from a different Poe story, or one completely of Flanagan’s invention. The original short story doesn’t have many characters, so the adaptation should have several new roles to accommodate the large cast.
We're just a few weeks away from principal photography on THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER, @intrepid's latest miniseries for @netflix. Today, Executive Producer Trevor Macy and I are elated to unveil the first wave of our cast.
— Mike Flanagan (@flanaganfilm) December 9, 2021
Ready for the full list of actors so far? These include Frank Langella, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, Carl Lumbly, Mark Hamill, Henry Thomas, Samantha Sloyan, T’Nia Miller, Rahul Kohli, Kate Siegel, Sauriyan Sapkota, Zach Gilford, Katie Parker, Michael Trucco, Malcolm Goodwin, Crystal Balint, Kyliegh Curran, Paola Nunez, Aya Furukawa, Matt Biedel, Daniel Jun, Ruth Codd, Robert Longstreet, Annabeth Gish, Igby Rigney, and JayR Tinaco. Whew. What a list. And if you’re wondering if this is the full list of actors for the show, it isn’t. The man loves his casting, evident by the number of actors here who have appeared in his previous projects. Flanagan gives special shoutout to casting director Annie McCarthy and her team at Engine Casting.
The Fall of the House of Usher will be the fifth horror series that Mike Flanagan and Intrepid Pictures bring to Netflix. Previous series include Haunting of Hill House, Haunting of Bly Manor, and this past year’s Midnight Mass. The fourth series will arrive next year as an adaptation of the young adult novel The Midnight Club by Christopher Pike. Since The Fall of the House of Usher has yet to begin filming, it will likely arrive sometime after.
Flanagan will direct the eight episode miniseries along with Michael Fimognari.