If you have a subscription to the streaming service Netflix, there’s a high likelihood that you’ve seen a TV series created by Mike Flanagan before. The Flanaverse, as it’s been dubbed, is filled with plenty of great horror series, but the man himself has admitted he was tricked into creating his own cinematic universe by the actors around him.
Flanagan is responsible for some of the best Netflix series around, including The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass. If you look at the cast lists for Flanagan’s shows and indeed his array of horror movies too, you’ll notice names such as Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, and Rahul Kohli keep popping up, and there’s a very good reason for that.
Over on Flanagan’s TikTok, he shared a video explaining how all those actors kept appearing in his work, and joked that he has been manipulated into hiring them time and time again.
“I do enjoy working with them. A lot of us have become like a family over the years, but you are correct, there is another reason. It’s a little embarrassing really but the truth is I don’t really [cast them] on purpose. They trick me, with their acting. A lot of times, I think I’m casting someone else and it ends up being one of these jabronis in disguise again,” Flanagan claimed.
“True story, I thought that I had cast Dev Patel in Midnight Mass, but then Rahul Kohli took off the top hat and the eyepatch he had been wearing and shouted ‘Boom, gotcha you yankee wanker.’ I’m very short-sighted and I don’t like wearing my glasses, and somewhere along the way the actors figured this out and they’ve been taking advantage of it ever since,” he added.
Turns out, the list of actors Flanagan thought he had cast in his films and TV shows includes Helen Mirren, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Queen Latifah, Timothée Chalamet, and Jason Momoa. Unfortunately for Flanagan, they were all Henry Thomas, the star of the ‘80s movie E.T., who has collaborated with Flanagan on numerous occasions.
For more information on the next project from Mike Flanagan, check out our guide to the Fall of the House of Usher release date. Or, for more scary stuff, dive into our list of the best ghost movies.