ORANGE — “Castle Rock” crews have come to town, transforming Orange once again into a fictional Maine town from the books of Stephen King.
The horror anthology series, “Castle Rock,” filmed its first season in Orange throughout the summer of 2017, and then sporadically until January last year.
The series from Hulu — a subscription on-demand video service — will be filming Season 2 in central Massachusetts into the summer. A premiere date for the second season has not been released.
According to the Orange Police Department, “Castle Rock” crews were in Orange on Tuesday, and will return next Wednesday, April 24, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. for filming.
A statement on the Police Department’s Facebook page warned residents to expect traffic.
“There will be officers all over the place holding up traffic. If you are trying to get somewhere in a hurry, you will be angry because there will be officers all over the place holding up traffic,” the statement reads. “Businesses will be open, and parking will be limited, but you may be better off doing your errands the day before because there will be officers all over the place holding up traffic.”
“Castle Rock” is set in the eponymous Maine town featured in King’s novels like “Cujo” and “The Dark Half,” and referenced in many of the horror author’s works.
While the series tells an original story each season in an anthology format — each season has its own plot, beginning, middle and end — it gives homage to many famous characters and places in King’s books.
Season 2, for example, will be linked thematically to the 1987 novel “Misery,” which tells the story of Annie Wilkes, an obsessive fan who imprisons and tortures her favorite author. A 1990 movie, “Misery,” based on the book, starred Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes, with Bates winning an Oscar for her performance.
In March, Hulu spokeswoman Yasamin Azarakhsh explained Season 2’s connection to “Misery” to The Greenfield Recorder.
According to Azarakhsh, Season 2 will star Lizzy Caplan (“Mean Girls,” “The Interview,” “Masters of Sex”) as a young Annie Wilkes, a “nurse and super fan battling to overcome mental health issues.”
Season 2 deals with a conflict involving Castle Rock and the neighboring fictional town of Jerusalem’s Lot, the setting of King’s “’Salem’s Lot,” and referenced in his books, “The Shining,” “Dolores Claiborne” and “Dreamcatcher.”
“A feud between warring clans comes to a boil when budding psychopath Wilkes, King’s nurse from hell, gets waylaid in Castle Rock,” Azarakhsh said in a statement.
Tim Robbins, who played the main character Andy Dufresne in the 1994 prison drama “The Shawshank Redemption,” based on a King novella, has also been cast in Season 2. Robbins will play “Pop,” a scamming business owner who is dying of cancer and leaving his junk shop to his nephew, John “Ace” Merrill, played by Garrett Hedlund (“Friday Night Lights,” “Troy,” “Tron: Legacy”).
Azarakhsh said Ace, as “Castle Rock’s bully,” will create tension along with Annie Wilkes and will be “threatening a fragile peace with nearby Jerusalem’s Lot.”
Other actors cast in Season 2 include Yusra Warsama as Dr. Nadia Omar, a Somali medical director of a rural hospital in Jerusalem’s Lot; Barkhad Abdi as Abdi Omar, older brother of Nadia, who leads the charge to build a Somali community center; Elsie Fisher as Joy, Annie Wilkes’ home-schooled daughter who questions her mother’s sanity; and Matthew Alan as Chris Merrill, Pop’s nephew and Ace’s brother, who tries to keep the peace between the Merrills and the Somali community.
It is also unknown whether “Castle Rock” Season 1 actors, like Sissy Spacek, Melanie Lynskey and André Holland, will appear at all in Season 2.
The show — executive producers are King, JJ Abrams, Ben Stephenson, Dustin Thomason, Vince Calandra, Sam Shaw, Liz Glotzer — and its production team have lauded Orange as a film location, donating $13,500 to the town for its cemeteries, memorials, parks and fire department.
Reach David McLellan at dmclellan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 268.