2025 has been quite the year for Stephen King fans, and it’s about to get better on December 16. The year has already seen the release of four movies based on King’s work: The Monkey, The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk, and The Running Man. If that’s not enough, an expansion of one of Stephen King’s best books made its debut on the small screen.
Following much anticipation, It: Welcome to Derry premiered on HBO just in time for Halloween. The horror show serves as a prequel to Andy and Barbara Muschietti’s It movies, which were adaptations of King’s 1986 book. Welcome to Derry season 1 is set to run through December 14, but just two days later, King fans will already have a worthwhile show to fill the Stephen King void in their lives.
Both Seasons Of Castle Rock Are Coming To Netflix On December 16
Netflix has announced what’s coming to the streamer in December 2025, and it notably includes Castle Rock. The two-season series, which was initially released as a Hulu original, is based on Stephen King’s fictional Maine town of Castle Rock. After coming to an end about six years ago, all 20 episodes of Castle Rock will be added to Netflix on December 16, 2025.
While Castle Rock only ran for two seasons from the summer of 2018 to late 2019, it wasn’t cancelled. Serving as an anthology, each season centered on a different story involving Castle Rock as the primary location. That said, only two seasons were planned for the show. Before becoming available to Netflix subscribers, Castle Rock could only be found on Hulu and Disney+.
Why Castle Rock Is The Perfect Show For Stephen King Fans
Castle Rock, which was well-received based on its impressive 88% Rotten Tomatoes score, featured a stellar cast, including names like Melanie Lynskey, André Holland, Bill Skarsgård, Lizzy Caplan, Jane Levy, Sissy Spacek, and Tim Robbins. Many of those names should be familiar to Stephen King fans; Skarsgård has portrayed the recent version of Pennywise, Robbins played Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, and Spacek played Carrie White in 1976’s Carrie, just to name a few.
Aside from Castle Rock serving as a reunion for actors who previously worked on Stephen King adaptations, the show itself acts as a melting pot for some of the author’s most popular stories. The fictional town of Castle Rock is a key setting in several of King’s stories, such as Cujo and Lisey’s Story, with mentions of the location appearing numerous other times.
As for the storylines, Castle Rock season 1 notably incorporates a mystery surrounding a prisoner from Shawshank, while also featuring Jackie Torrance, a family member of The Shining’s Jack Torrance. Castle Rock season 2 then shifts focus to Annie Wilkes, a central character from Stephen King‘s Misery. The second installment essentially serves as a prequel with Lizzy Caplan playing a younger version of the villain who would later be played by Kathy Bates in the 1990 movie adaptation.
Whether you missed out on the show when it first aired on Hulu or you’re looking to close out 2025 with a Stephen King rewatch, Castle Rock should not be overlooked when it comes to Netflix on December 16.
- Release Date
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2018 – 2019-00-00
- Showrunner
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Dustin Thomason
- Directors
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Dustin Thomason
