Ryan Murphy's 'Monster' is coming back for a third season!
After the success and subsequent controversy surrounding Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, which dropped on Netflix last month, Ryan Murphy is already busy getting ready for a third season of his hit series, this time focusing on serial killer Ed Gein.
Today, it was announced that Laurie Metcalf, out actor Tom Hollander, and Olivia Williams have been added to the cast alongside Charlie Hunnam (Queer as Folk), who had already scored the role as this season’s star, Variety reports. While the plot of the third season isn’t known yet, both famed director Alfred Hitchcock and his wife have been cast, which likely means that at least part of the series will surround the making of Psycho, which based the character Norman Bates loosely on Gein’s life and crimes.
Far from the first time his crimes have been adapted, Gein is notorious for grave robbing, murder, and creating a woman suit out of skin so he could become his mother. His crimes inspired not only Psycho but also Silence of the Lambs, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and even Murphy’s American Horror Story: Asylum.
Scroll through to find out more about Ed Gein’s crimes and check out the actors and real-life people they are playing.
Ed Gein
Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hannam is set to play the notorious serial killer and grave robber Ed Gein. After Gein's brother, father, and the mother he was obsessed with died, he was left alone and became increasingly deranged. He left his mother's room untouched while the rest of his home fell into squalor, but he was able to support himself as a handyman and babysitter. He began robbing graves and making things out of the dead remains, and a little more than a decade later, he was caught by police who found the dead body of a woman he killed in a shed on his property.
What crimes did Gein commit?
Gein admitted to police that he killed two women, Mary Hogan, who ran a local tavern that he frequented, and Bernice Worden, who owned a hardware store. Gein is often called a serial killer because he is suspected of killing many more people who went missing in Wisconsin, but it has never been definitively proven.
When police searched Gein’s property what they found has been fodder for horror movie writers and directors ever since. Not only did they find Warden’s dead body, but inside, they discovered chairs covered in human skin, skulls on his bedposts, make made from women’s heads, a belt made out of human nipples, a lampshade made from the skin of a human face, as well as leggings and a corset made from women’s skin.
Was Gein convicted of his crimes?
He was charged with first-degree murder but pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia and sent to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital. In 1968, doctors determined Gein was fit to stand trial. He was later found not guilty by reason of insanity and committed back to the same hospital where he lived out the rest of his life.
Laurie Metcalf as Augusta Gein
Roseanne star Laurie Metcalf plays Gein's mother Augusta, who the killer was obsessed with. Gein idolized and was obsessed with his mother, who was a religious woman who preached to her sons about how women were naturally promiscuous and the work of the devil. Many books and movies based on this true crime case blame Augusta for her son's murders and desire to create a woman suit to look like her.
Tom Hollander as Alfred Hitchcock
Tom Hollander, who starred in Ryan Murphy’s other series, Feud: Capote vs. The Swans as Truman Capote, is playing iconic horror and thriller director Alfred Hitchcock. Hitchcock cemented his place in the annals of horror history by directing an adaption of Robert novel Bloch’s Psycho, which was based on Gein’s life.
Olivia Williams as Alma Reville
The Sixth Sense star Olivia Williams will play Alfred Hitchcock’s wife, Alma Reville. Like many women throughout history, Reville’s role in making her husband’s films has been largely erased, but her inclusion in the cast of character means that maybe she’ll finally get the credit she’s due for being Hitchcock’s closest confidant and working as his story consultant, script editor, continuity person and sounding board.
Production is just heating up on this new season and we can't wait to see how it turns out!