Will Netflix's 'The Haunting...' Get a Season 3?

Just in time for spooky season, Netflix has dropped The Haunting of Bly Manor, the long-awaited follow-up to the terrifying phenomenon that was 2018's The Haunting of Hill House. In the style of anthology series like American Horror Story before it, the new entry in the Haunting collection features the same cast as the first season, but in different roles. And just as Hill House was based on a classic horror story—Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel of the same name—so too does Bly Manor takes its inspiration from another deeply unsettling work of fiction: Henry James' 1898 novella The Turn of the Screw.

Though it's only been available to stream for a few hours, the rave reviews for The Haunting of Bly Manor are rolling in from fans and critics alike, leaving true horror junkies already clamoring for another season of the series. The show has yet to be officially renewed for a third season, but here's everything we know so far about a possible new entry in the Haunting anthology.

When would season three of The Haunting arrive?

After the first season, The Haunting of Hill House, spooked viewers around the world in Oct. 2018, the series was renewed as an anthology in February 2019. Production on The Haunting of Bly Manor began in September of that year and wrapped in Feb. 2020, with plenty of time to spare before its October release date. So, barring any COVID-related delays, we could reasonably expect to see the show renewed for a third season sometime in the next few months, with the new episodes arriving on Netflix in Oct. 2022.

Which cast members would return for a third season?

Several of the show's stars made the journey from Hill House to Bly Manor, so there's a good chance at least as many would sign on to take on new roles in yet another chilling season of the series. Repeat cast members in the first two seasons include Carla Gugino, Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, Henry Thomas, and Catherine Parker.

And the cast and crew are just as excited about the possibility of a third season as the rest of us. Tahirah Sharif, who stars as Rebecca Jessel in The Haunting of Bly Manor, said she is "100 percent" willing to rejoin the cast for another season, thanks in large part to the showrunning abilities of creator Mike Flanagan and executive producer Trevor Macy. She told Digital Spy, "I think anybody that works with Mike and Trevor and the whole team always wants to come back. Mike has such an incredible mind, in the stuff that he writes and directs, and it's so interesting."

James Kneist, cinematographer of the show's second season, echoed Sharif's enthusiasm, telling Digital Spy, "I think there'll be another installment. I think the audience is going to really demand it, especially after Bly. It's a really fun concept." He added, "It must be fun for Mike as a creator and writer to mine some of our historical literature to find these really interesting stories."

What would season three of The Haunting be about?

The options are truly endless, since scary stories set in particularly creepy homes abound throughout literary history—and it seems like the showrunners plan on sticking to their tried-and-true formula of creating "literary remixes" in haunted houses.

"At its foundation, the Haunting series is very much about haunted spaces and haunted people," Flanagan, the show's creator, told Vanity Fair. "The way we make those things dance together is really going to be what's uniform about Hill House and Bly." So, at the very least, it's likely safe to assume haunted spaces and haunted people would also be "dancing together" through a third season of the show.