Is 'The Haunting of Bly Manor' a Continuation of 'The Haunting of Hill House'?

If you were terrified by Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, then prepare yourself to explore yet another mansion of horror with The Haunting of Bly Manor. Following up his first horror series, creator Mike Flanagan is again taking up the task of scaring the bejeezus out of audiences, this time with an adaptation of the Henry James novel The Turn of the Screw. 

While the story of The Haunting of Bly Manor doesn’t appear to be related to The Haunting of Hill House, the new series does use some of the same cast members. This has many fans asking if the new show is a sequel to Hill House or whether the characters are new to the Crain family. Keep scrolling to find out.

Technically, The Haunting of Bly Manor is a follow-up to 2018’s The Haunting of Hill House, with much of the same cast and creative team returning to the series. However, the narratives of the two series are not connected. 

The Haunting of Hill House was adapted from Shirley Jackson’s 1959 horror novel of the same name. The Haunting of Bly Manor, on the other hand, takes inspiration from Henry James’ famous Gothic-Romance classic The Turn of the Screw, as well as from other Henry James ghost stories. 

The series is set in the late 1980s and tells the story about a young American au pair who arrives at Bly Manor to look after two children, the niece and nephew of the man who hired her. But after arriving at the grand estate, Bly Manor’s new governess starts to see people that no one else seems to see — like the dead parents of the children she looks after, as well as the previous governess who drowned in a nearby lake.

A number of cast members who played the Crain family made repeat appearances in The Haunting of Bly Manor, but as fresh new characters. Victoria Pedretti (You, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), who stood out in her role as Nell Crain in Hill House, returned to once again play the lead in The Haunting of Bly Manor, American au pair Dani Clayton.

Henry Thomas, who played Hugh Crain in Hill House, is coming back this time as Henry Wingrave, the man who hires Dani to look after his niece and nephew. The children are played by young stars Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Amelie Smith (who were not in Hill House).

Oliver Jackson-Cohen, who played Luke Crain, and Kate Siegel, who won the hearts of fans with her acerbic one-liners as Theodora Crain, will also join the rest of the cast at Bly Manor. Catherine Parker, who appeared as ghost Poppy Hill in the first season, will reappear as well. 

There are also a lot of new, yet familiar faces that joined the cast of Bly Manor, like T'Nia Miller from HBO’s Years and Years, and Rahul Kohli of CW’s Supergirl. Newcomer Amelia Eve. The Haunting of Bly Manor debuted on Netflix on Oct. 9, 2020 and while the series was met with some starkly mixed reviews — people either loved it or hated it, many folks wanted to know if there was going to be a third entry in the Haunting series.

Showrunner Mike Flanagan has stated on Twitter that there are no further plans for new entries in the Haunting series on Netflix as Intrepid Pictures has its hands full with other productions at the moment. It's hard to think that Netflix wouldn't at least consider a third entry in the series. Even though audiences seemed to be split down the middle as to the Bly Manor story, I'd think that viewers would at least give a third series a chance.

What do you think? Did you watch both Hill House and Bly Manor? Did you prefer one over the other? Or did you think they were both great? Or were you not impressed with either?