Netflix has debuted its first look at Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein. The streamer dropped a teaser for Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s upcoming crime drama “Monster: The Ed Gein Story” on Thursday.
Charlie Hunnam (“Sons of Anarchy”) plays Gein; Tom Hollander (“In the Loop,” “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans”) will play Alfred Hitchcock; and Laurie Metcalf (“Lady Bird,” “The Conners”) will play Augusta Gein. The series will also star Suzanna Son, Vicky Krieps, Olivia Williams, Lesley Manville, Joey Pollari, Charlie Hall, Tyler Jacob Moore, Mimi Kennedy, Will Brill and Robin Weigert.
“The Ed Gein Story” will mark the third installment in the Netflix anthology series, which first premiered in 2022 with “The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.” That installment starring Evan Peters as the Milwaukee serial killer was nominated for six Emmys, with Niecy Nash winning Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. That was followed by 2024’s “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” starring Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch, which is currently up for 11 Emmy nominations.
Since its first season, Murphy and Brennan’s anthology series has always toyed with the question of how much society is to blame when it comes to making these monsters. This third season will likely ask that question more directly as it dives into Gein’s story. Known as “The Butcher of Plainfield” or “The Plainfield Ghoul,” Gein gained infamy in the late ’50s when authorities discovered he had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned the flesh and bones from those bodies into furniture. He also murdered at least two women and was found guilty of first degree murder, but ruled legally insane.
But as more details emerged about the Gein case, the more bizarre it became. Many described the man as being obsessed with his mother. After her death, he told police he was tying to make a “woman suit” so that he could wear her skin.
It was such a disturbing story that it captured the imagination of Robert Bloch, who wrote the 1959 novel “Psycho.” That book was later adapted to become Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 masterpiece “Psycho,” which forever changed cinematic horror. Norman Bates wasn’t the only onscreen killer to come from Gein’s story, though. Both “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “The Silence of the Lambs” also drew from his case.
“Gein’s macabre legacy gave birth to fictional monsters born in his image and ignited a cultural obsession with the criminally deviant,” a press release for the season reads. “Ed Gein didn’t just influence a genre — he became the blueprint for modern horror.”
In addition to creating the series, Murphy and Brennan executive produce. Other EPs include Max Winkler, Eric Kovtun, Scott Robertson, Nissa Diederich, Louise Shore, Carl Franklin and Hunnam. Brennan will direct the third and fourth episodes, and Winkler will direct the first two as well as the remaining four. Brennan also writes the series.
“Monster: The Ed Gein Story” premieres Oct. 3 on Netflix.
