When is The Haunting of Bly Manor's Netflix release date? Trailer, cast and news

The action is moved to the '80s, with lead character Dani arriving from the US to look after the Wingrave children at thee eponymous English property, only to discover that she's got a bit more than she's bargained for – sharing the premises with a range of spectors.

The series hasn't been available on Netflix for too long, but many horror fans have already binge-watched the entire season, reaching the show's shocking ending and reveal of its narrator

Whether you've already sped through the tragic gothic tale, or you're tempted to start streaming it, here's everything you need to know about The Haunting of Bly Manor.

When is The Haunting of Bly Manor's Netflix release date?

The next chapter in the "Haunting of" series is available now - having been released on Netflix on 9th October 2020.

If you've already steamed through the new series, you can always re-watch season one – and keep an eye out for all those hidden ghosts — over on Netflix.

Where is The Haunting of Bly Manor filmed?

Though the spooky series set is in the English countryside, filming actually took place entirely in Vancouver, Canada, with some interior scenes shot at The Bridge Studios.

Returning star Oliver Jackson-Cohen previously told RadioTimes.com that filming - which began in September 2019 - had wrapped as of February 2020, meaning that the series was lucky enough not to be delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.

How many episodes in The Haunting of Bly Manor?

There are nine episodes in the series. The episode titles are as follows:

1. The Great Good Place

2. The Pupil

3. The Two Faces Part 1

4. The Way It Came

5. The Altar of the Dead

6. The Jolly Corner

7. The Two Faces Part 2

8. The Romance of Certain Old Clothes

9. The Beast in the Jungle

Is The Haunting of Bly Manor scary?

In a word – yes!

RadioTimes.com called the series "terrifying" in our The Haunting of Bly Manor review, noting that it's "packed with almost as many scares as Flanagan’s earlier project" The Haunting of Hill House: "A chilling tension... pervades much of the series – with several genuinely horrifying figures seen inhabiting the manor and occasional moments that will undoubtedly cause viewers to audibly shriek."

The Haunting of Bly Manor cast

Many cast members who previously played Crain family members returned in The Haunting of Bly Manor cast - but as brand new characters.

Season one will be the last we see of the Crain family, after one of the cast members confirmed that season one was "the end" for them - or at least for their Hill House characters.

Victoria Pedretti, who played standout character Nell in Hill House, plays the lead role in Bly Manor, playing American tutor Dani Clayton.

Dani's charges are the two Wingrave children, Miles (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and Flora (Amelie Bea Smith), while Henry Thomas plays their wealthy uncle.

Other cast members include T'Nia Miller (who viewers will recognise from Years and Years) as the manor's manager Hannah Grose.

Kate Siegel joins the cast, as does Oliver Jackson-Cohen, playing the insufferable Peter Quint.

Amelia Eve plays the groundskeeper Jamie; Tahirah Sharif plays the children's previous governess Rebecca Jessel; and Rahul Kohli plays house chef Owen.

Are they the same cast as Haunting of Hill House?

Well, yes and no. Although the two series share many cast members, the two casts are not identical.

Victoria Pedretti, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Henry Thomas, Kate Seigel and Carla Gugino are the high-profile stars who appear in both series.

Meanwhile, newcomers for Bly Manor include T'Nia Miller, Amelia Eve, Tahirah Sharif and Rahul Kohli as well as child actors Benjamin Evan Ainsworth and Amelie Bea Smith.

The Haunting of Bly Manor trailer

In September, fans were given a terrifying glimpse at what lies in store, with the first full-length trailer being released.

The trailer shows tutor Dani Clayton comforting the Bly Manor children’s following the deaths of their parents.

Eerily, she tells them,”In a way, they’ll always be here” - which certainly has haunting connotations for the series as a whole - watch the trailer in full below.

Before that, a creepy teaser trailer was released on 31st August (Bank Holiday Monday in the UK), introducing us to a brand new location where all is not what it seems. You can watch the trailer here.

What is The Haunting of Bly Manor about?

Set in the English countryside in 1987 , the new series focuses more on a tragic romance.

Showrunner Mike Flanagan told Vanity Fair: "It certainly provides a new way to tell a love story, and there are three of them really that beat at the heart of this season," Flanagan said. "They all have a very dark edge to them. And by the end, it's really hard to differentiate tragedy with romance. That sense of romantic longing for someone who meant so much to us—but who's gone—really is the heart of any ghost story."

The series borrows its title from Henry James' ghostly novella The Turn of the Screw, and Flanagan previously confirmed that the author's ghost stories have inspired the new series. He also added that it will be "much scarier than season one".

• You can buy Henry James' The Turn of the Screw on Amazon - check out the inspiration behind the series.

"We're looking at all the ghost stories of Henry James as the jumping-off point for the season," he told Birth.Movies.Death, "so it very much is a whole new deal. For Henry James fans, it's going to be pretty wild, and for people who aren't familiar with his work, it's going to be unbelievably scary. I already think it's much scarier than season one, so I'm very excited about it."

What happened in The Haunting of Hill House?

The show follows Hugh and Olivia Crain and their five children, and the series flips back and forth in time: alternating from present-day when the Crain children are adults, to back to when the family temporarily lived at Hill House for the summer.

Adult Crain children are still haunted by the brief time they spent at the house, during which time their mother Olivia died under mysterious circumstances. When one of the siblings returns to the house to face their demons, their tragic demise draws the remaining four Crain children back to Hill House.

Things get even spookier when we begin to realise that the house is really alive — more akin to the shark in Jaws than a standard haunted house. The Red Room (basically an evil version of the Room of Requirement from Harry Potter) functions as the house/monster's "stomach". It creates illusions tailored to each of the Crain siblings, luring them in and ultimately devouring them — and as in most horror films and shows, not everyone lives to tell the tale.

In one particularly sinister twist, Nellie (Victoria Pedretti) — the joint-youngest Crain child and probably the most sympathetic character in the show — is revealed to be the Bent-Neck Lady, the terrifying apparition she saw frequently as a child. The house tricks Adult-Nell into putting a noose around her neck (in her mind, it's her mother's locket), and she breaks her neck, before falling backwards in time and appearing in various major points in her own past. In other words, she was haunting herself.

Is Haunting of Bly Manor a sequel?

It is a sequel in some respects – in that it is part of the same anthology series – but Bly Manor is not actually narratively linked to Hill House in any way.

So while it could be called a spiritual successor to Hill House in terms of its style and its tone, it is not a sequel in the traditional sense – you won't find any of the Crain clan hanging around Bly.

Haunting of Bly Manor explained

* WARNING – SPOILER ALERT *

For those of you who've watched all the way to the end of the nine-part series, you'll know that Dani meets her tragic demise after saving young Flora (Amelie Smith) from being drowned by the ghostly Lady in the Lake, Viola (Kate Siegel).

You star Victoria Pedretti has spoken out about her character's fate, revealing that she doesn't think that her drowning in the lake, which trapped her soul under water forever, necessarily means she won't find peace.

“I think we can maybe have hope that in her job as a caretaker and a protector of the manor, that it can actually be quite a good thing, or a positive position that she’s found herself living in for eternity,” she said.

“Because she certainly found a lot of fulfilment, I think, in being a caretaker and a protector in her living life.”

You can read our explainer for more on The Haunting of Bly Manor ending – and if you're wondering whether Hannah's dead, we've explained The Haunting of Bly Manor episode five, too.

Buy Henry James' The Turn of the Screw on Amazon. Looking for something else to watch? Check out our guide to the best series on Netflix and best movies on Netflix, or visit our TV Guide.