Haunting of the Hill House S2 is full of surprises: Mike Flanagan

"Haunting of the Hill House" creator Mike Flanagan has teased that the upcoming sophomore season of the horror-anthology series will have "wonderful surprises" for the audience. "Hill House", which premiered on streaming platform Netflix in 2018, was based on Shirley Jackson's gothic horror novel of the same name.

It focused on the Crain family, shifting between their past selves living in the spirit-infested Hill House and their present selves dealing with both the psychological and supernatural demons that haunt them. Titled "The Haunting of Bly Manor", the season two of the series derives its title from the setting of Henry James'' 1898 novella "The Turn of the Screw", which features the story of two orphans looked after by a young governess, who acts as the narrator.

"The most exciting thing about 'Bly Manor', for me, is in the way that we got to expand on the Shirley Jackson universe in season one. While season two is inspired mostly by 'The Turn of the Screw', which has been adapted so many times, we also were able to mine the rest of Henry James's ghost stories to fill out the season.

"Even if you know 'The Turn of the Screw' really well, and a lot of people do  there's a new 'Turn of the Screw' movie coming out in like January. They come out every three months, whether you need it or not," Flanagan told Digital Spy. He said creating the second season has been a great journey.

"Even knowing that, there's a tonne of wonderful surprises to this season that come from some of his ghost stories that have never been adapted. But they all thematically fit together really nicely. "So it's been a real joy crafting the narrative of this season. And I think if people liked season one, there's going to be a lot more to like in the second season."

Actors Kate Siegel, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Victoria Pedretti and Henry Thomas are returning for "Bly Manor".It is scheduled to premiere on Netflix in 2020.