Tim Robbins is returning to the world of Stephen King in the second season of Hulu’s “Castle Rock,” and teased a return to a familiar prison.
Robbins, who starred as wrongly-convicted inmate Andy Dufrense in “The Shawshank Redemption,” will play another King character in Reginald “Pop” Merrill, who was featured in the novella, “The Sun Dog.” “Castle Rock” features many iconic King locations, including Shawshank State Penitentiary. With Pop being the head of a crime family, could that mean that all these years after he “crawled through a river of s—,” could Robbins return to the infamous prison?
“I’m not sure I can say,” the actor told Entertainment Weekly. “I believe there’s one [scene].”
“Castle Rock” smashes together various stories and characters from King’s works. The series takes place in the fictional Maine town of Castle Rock, which has been the setting for numerous King works including “Cujo,” “The Dead Zone,” and “The Body” (the novella that “Stand By Me” was based on).
Shawshank was heavily featured in the first season as the place where Bill Skarsgard’s “The Kid” was held captive for 27 years by Warden Lacy. The second season of the anthology is heavily inspired by “Misery,” where Lizzy Caplan plays a young Annie Wilkes. The character was played by Kathy Bates in the 1990 film of the same name.
In Season 2, a feud between warring clans comes to a boil when Wilkes gets waylaid in Castle Rock.
Paul Sparks will play John “Ace” Merrill, another legendary King character, who was played by Kiefer Sutherland in “Stand By Me.” In “Castle Rock,” Ace is taking over his uncle’s (Robbins) businesses and threatening a fragile peace with nearby Jerusalem’s Lot.