Published: 11/5/2020 4:24:37 PM
Modified: 11/5/2020 4:24:25 PM
ORANGE — The spotlight is moving off Orange with the news that “Castle Rock,” the Stephen King-inspired online series partially filmed in the small town, has been canceled ahead of its third season.
Hulu, a subscription video-on-demand service, announced Tuesday it was pulling the plug on the original suspense-thriller, but could provide no further details to the Greenfield Recorder. Filming of Season 1 took place in Orange throughout summer 2017 and then sporadically until January 2018. Production of Season 2 started in April 2019.
Dick Sheridan, a 50-year Orange resident and veteran public servant, heard rumors a few weeks ago that the series was getting the ax. He said he is disappointed because it brought tourism and film production dollars into the community.
“It put Orange on the map and made it a destination spot. Anything that puts Orange in the minds of people not from the area and entices them to come here has got to be a benefit,” he said. “I enjoyed it when they were here. It was a shot in the arm. You’d have a couple hundred people here and it helped the side businesses.”
Selectboard Chair Ryan Mailloux said the series was exciting for Orange residents. He said it centered around horror and despair, “but brought a great deal of light and positivity to Orange.”
Still, he said, all good things must come to an end.
Mailloux said “Castle Rock” was a morale booster and came at the right time for a town still reeling from a brutal 2016 in which a house fire killed two young girls and a home invasion resulted in the murder of an elderly couple.
“It was a challenging year,” Mailloux said. “The town does a great job of coming together for things.”
Castle Rock is a fictional town in Maine, which is King’s home state and the setting for many of his works, including “Cujo,” “The Dark Half” and “Needful Things,” as well as the novella “The Body” and other short stories. The show, produced by Warner Bros. Television, signed Sissy Spacek, Melanie Lynskey, André Holland and Bill Skarsgård to the cast. Season 2 also starred Tim Robbins — who appeared in “The Shawshank Redemption,” another on-screen King adaptation — as Reginald “Pop” Merrill, a scamming business owner dying of cancer and leaving his junk shop to his nephew.
Sheridan said he will always have fond memories of briefly meeting Spacek, an Academy Award winner famous for her role in the 1976 film “Carrie.”
“I’ve always been a fan of hers anyway,” Sheridan said.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.