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New 'Castle Rock' trailer links Stephen King characters

The Easter Egg-filled trailer for the new Hulu anthology series "Castle Rock" shows horrific scenes of death, lost kids, angry dogs and Shawshank prison.

Bonnie Burton
Journalist Bonnie Burton writes about movies, TV shows, comics, science and robots. She is the author of the books Live or Die: Survival Hacks, Wizarding World: Movie Magic Amazing Artifacts, The Star Wars Craft Book, Girls Against Girls, Draw Star Wars, Planets in Peril and more! E-mail Bonnie.
Bonnie Burton
2 min read

If you're a big fan of Stephen King, your arcane knowledge of the people, places and supernatural events that appear in his stories will finally pay off. 

King has teamed up with executive producer J.J. Abrams again for a TV series that will link some of his iconic characters and horrifying events to the mysterious locale of Castle Rock, Maine.

In the new trailer that landed Sunday, we get more hints at what's to come in the upcoming anthology series "Castle Rock," debuting on Hulu in 2018.

Plenty of cryptic moments fill the new trailer including a missing child poster, a piano fallen through a floor, a burning VHS tape, a funeral procession, a waving mascot standing on a rooftop... the list goes on.

The prison from "The Shawshank Redemption" also turns up a few times in the trailer with scenes of a possible prison execution via lethal injection, prison inmates lining up for cell inspection, and an official Shawshank Penitentiary car sinking into a lake.

There are new faces like André Holland as Henry Deaver, Melanie Lynskey as Molly Strand, and a few familiar faces too like Sissy Spacek who previously portrayed the telekinetic Carrie, but now portrays Ruth Deaver. Plus, there's Bill Skarsgard (no longer in Pennywise mode) and Scott Glenn (replacing Ed Harris) as Sheriff Alan Pangborn.

King fans are no stranger to the town of Castle Rock. The Maine town is the setting for his novels (many which have been made into movies & TV series) including "Cujo," "Needful Things" and "The Dead Zone" to name a few. 

Castle Rock is also mentioned (but doesn't serve as the setting) in King's other tales including "Shawshank Redemption," "Pet Sematary," "It" and more.

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Shawshank prison features heavily in the new "Castle Rock" TV trailer, airing on Hulu in 2018.

Video screenshot by Bonnie Burton/CNET

Thanks to an earlier teaser trailer, we already know that many of these previous works that take place in or mention Castle Rock will be showing up in some way in the new series, either via events or characters. 

"The anthology will weave together characters and themes from those novels that use the Castle Rock location," The Hollywood Reporter reported earlier this year. "Each season will follow a different set of characters and storylines while interjecting themes and specific characters from previous seasons."

For now, we can try to guess which of the many fictional residents from Castle Rock will be in the new series. 

Previously, King and Abrams worked together for Hulu on "11.22.63" -- based on King's book about time travel and JFK.

The first 10-episode season of "Castle Rock" will debut on Hulu in 2018.

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