The Haunting of Hill HouseShining a flashlight on Netflix's spooky series that offers a ghost in every shadow, eyes in every wall, a nightmare in every dream.
The Haunting of Hill House gripped audiences with its story of the Crains, a family torn apart by demons both personal and literal. Even though Netflix hasn't announced a continuation of the series, fans are already formulating theories about what might happen in a Season 2 of The Haunting of Hill House. By the Season 1 finale, the Crains' story was at a mostly happy end, and series creator Mike Flanagan has said the family wouldn't appear in the show if Season 2 gets the green light:
[T]he story of the Crain family is told. It’s done. I think that there are all sorts of different directions we could go in, with the house or with something completely different. I love the idea of an anthology as well. But to me, I felt like the Crains have been through enough, and we left them exactly as we all wanted to remember them...
Fans are taking Flanagan's statement into account, but not dismissing the idea of the return of Theo or other characters. The most intriguing fan theories cover everything from what role the house itself will play to whether one of the ghosts will get a backstory.
A major fan theory involves the rest of the books in Steven Crain’s bibliography - specifically, his investigation of Alcatraz. After his book about Hill House takes off, Steve becomes a paranormal investigator and author who goes to the most famous haunted locations and writes about them. Why not follow Steven to one of those locations?
That's exactly what some fans think will happen in Season 2, including Redditor /u/Shannon26:
Out of Steve’s 10 books, only Hill House was a fictional location. The other nine all have a long history of being haunted. I think the haunting of Alcatraz would be interesting, but he also had titles of mental asylums and hospitals, a haunted hotel, and a haunted lighthouse. Lots of possibilities.
As of Season 1, no one really knows where Hill House came from. Sure, Poppy the ghost had a cute rhyme about the house, but she’s not the most trustworthy character on the show. Redditor /u/Egbertus believes multiple versions of Hill House could exist, likely constructed by people who didn’t know what they were doing:
Well, when Olivia was drawing her forever house, she was very "inspired" by Hill House. Could be she wasn't the only one, and different versions of Hill House were built in different places.
Taken at face value, this idea is kind of wonky. But remember, Olivia didn’t know about Hill House when she built her forever house. The concept of unnatural knowledge and its connection to frightening structures is Lovecraftian in nature, which might be intriguing.
Even if the Crain family never returns to Hill House, it’s possible a group of new characters could find their way into the home and fall victim to its destructive charms. It would make sense that curious locals or nosy paranormal investigators would want to take a peak around a giant, impossible house in the middle of nowhere.
Redditor /u/Prabe theorizes that a new set of events will kick off after a group of teens stumble upon the house, which is very '80s. Such a scenario might lead to a straightforward season of horror, but if Mike Flanagan stays behind the wheel, this version of the story would probably take plenty of twists and turns.
Mike Flanagan packed the background of the series with halls full of creepy ghosts, and the audience even got to meet a few of them by the end of the season. If Season 2 is a go, an easy way to fill another 10 episodes is to look into who these ghosts were before they found themselves at Hill House.
Redditor /u/emeraldmama1517 hopes “each episode would be about an individual ghost, beginning with them alive, then [passing], then their interactions with the Crains."
It might also be interesting to see how the ghosts interact with each other, or if they’re locked in their own haunted world - much like the Bent Neck Lady was until the finale.
Mike Flanagan has said the Crain family wouldn't be back if there's a Season 2, and there's really no good way to continue their story. Redditor /u/WendigoHome believes the only way for the series to go forward is to become an anthology. Rather than dealing with Hill House and the Crain family, the show would look at another haunted location, with a completely different cast. The redditor said, “The mythology of the house is so connected to the family in this story, it would probably suck if all the rules and style of the ghosts were just repeated in the same house, even about entirely new characters.”
The only thing that’s a little off about this theory is fans might flip if a show called The Haunting of Hill House takes place at another location. If the same creative crew works on the show, however, it still might be just as good.
Redditor /u/Penya23 “wouldn't say no to a spin-off where Theo uses her power to help families such as hers." Theo is played by Mike Flanagan’s wife, Kate Siegel, so he might be inclined to develop her character further. But this isn't the kind of story Flanagan usually tells.
A series where Theo solves crimes is more of a procedural, and Flanagan’s work typically involves the director looking at family dynamics and how mental illness and addiction affect the people involved.
