Castle Rock trailer shows Lizzy Caplan as Annie Wilkes!

Hulu has a season 2 teaser trailer for Castle Rock, and it’s by no means skimping on Misery’s Annie Wilkes. Are you excited?

Hulu’s Castle Rock is set to premiere on October 23, right around time for Halloween. To satisfy the curious, a trailer has been unleashed by Hulu. What may surprise some is that Annie Wilkes (Lizzy Caplan) is very prominent throughout, with only hints of what other characters are up to. Check it out!

While season 1 of Castle Rock was solid for many people, it’s safe to say not everyone “got it” by season’s end. The whole thing got a little esoteric with talk of parallel universes, the “schisma,” multiple Henry Deavers (André Holland/Bill Skarsgård) and certain unresolved haunting images.

That being said, few likely found fault with the performances, with Sissy Spacek receiving particular acclaim for the episode The Queen. Still, while the season featured Scott Glenn as Alan Pangborn and Jane Levy as Diane “Jackie” Torrance, some wondered if any more Stephen King-linked characters would show up.

Well, those people obviously needn’t worry about that in season 2, which features both Annie Wilkes and John “Ace” Merrill (Paul Sparks)! Stephen King fans ought to recognize the name Ace from the Rob Reiner-directed classic Stand By Me, where he was played by Kiefer Sutherland.

While this teaser trailer doesn’t show much of Ace, it does prominently show Tim Robbins as his uncle, Reginald “Pop” Merril. Of course, Robbins is known to King fans as the man who played Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption (which, along with Stand By Me, often considered one of the best King adaptations).  Will Robbins’ character visit Shawshank, despite it now being closed?

Acting-wise, it’s apparent that Caplan wishes to convey Annie Wilkes similarly to Kathy Bates’ Oscar-winning performance (for Rob Reiner’s Misery).  In fact, even her voice is comparable.  While this version of Wilkes is definitely younger, there’s an obvious question:  Is she any more sane than the version we’re most familiar with?  The trailer also introduces Elsie Fisher as Joy Wilkes, Annie’s daughter, and there are hints that she suspects her mother of wrongdoing.

We catch brief glimpses of the mayhem to come, including a creepy (seemingly haunted wheelchair), a sign reading Jerusalem’s Lot (AKA Salem’s Lot, known for a bit of a vampire problem) and signs of conflict between the Merrills and the Omars (Yusra Warsama and Barkhad Abdi), a Somali family. Basically, if this teaser trailer doesn’t get you interested in season 2 of Castle Rock, probably nothing will.

So what do you think of the trailer and season 2 of Castle Rock? Let us know in the comments!