Ryan Murphy’s Netflix anthology series Monster has added two new cast members for its third season with Addison Rae (Thanksgiving) and Suzanna Son (Red Rocket) joining the previously announced Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy).
Rae and Son’s roles are being kept under wraps for the time being, the season will focus on infamous serial killer Ed Gein, who in many ways was the first ‘celebrity’ killer in America as his crimes had never been seen or heard of before. Hunnam will play Gein while the cast also includes Laurie Metcalf (The Connors) as Gein’s mother Augusta, Tom Hollander (The White Lotus) as famed and iconic director Alfred Hitchcock and Olivia Williams (Dune: Prophecy) as Alma Reville, Hitchcock’s wife who was also his screenwriter and film editor.
Hollander and Williams’ roles come as Alfred Hitchcock was adapting the novel Psycho into what became his best known and acclaimed film. Written by Robert Bloch, the story is influenced by Ed Gein, whose life and methods are similar to the central antagonist Norman Bates. Other film villains Gein inspired were Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs.
Murphy previously stated why he chose to focus on Gein for the new anthology, describing a desire to explore how serial killers became a genre unto itself in pop culture. “After we did Menendez, Ian [Brennan, Monsters co-creator] and I were talking about it, and we were interested in this idea of, ‘Where did our cultural interest in serial killers begin? Where and how did this all start? Based on our research, the very first one who became a celebrity at that level was Ed, who was an instant crazy celebrity from the moment he was arrested. Nobody had ever heard of anything like that. Then we found out — he was motivated, obviously — but he was schizophrenic. How he became what he became was a very interesting story.”
Rae is best known for her role in Eli Roth’s horror film Thanksgiving, for which she is returning for the sequel, while Son has appeared in HBO’s The Idol and will be seen next in Fear Street: Prom Queen.
Monster was created by Murphy and Ian Brennan. The first season premiered on Netflix in 2022 and starred Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer, while season two focus on Lyle and Erik Menendez, played by Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch.
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