The ten-episode series Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (read our review HERE) was such a huge success for the Netflix streaming service back in 2022 that Netflix ordered two more seasons of the show from its creators, Ian Brennan and American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy. Last year, it was announced that the second season would be titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and we’re now just a couple of days away from the premiere date! Monsters is set to start streaming on September 19th… and in the build-up to the season’s premiere, Murphy has gone ahead and revealed that season 3 is going to star Sons of Anarchy‘s Charlie Hunnam as murderer and graverobber Ed Gein.
Variety reports that Murphy made this announcement onstage during a Monsters promotional event in Los Angeles.
Variety also reminds us that Ed Gein, who also hailed from Wisconsin like Dahmer, became infamous in the 1950s when authorities discovered that he not only had killed multiple people, but had dug up graves from a cemetery near his home and fashioned all manner of household items and clothing from human remains. Gein’s case served as an inspiration for several major pop culture characters later on, including Norman Bates in Psycho, Leatherface and his family in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.
Details on Monster season 3 have not been revealed beyond the involvement of Hunnam and the Gein focus.
While we wait to hear more about the third season, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story will chronicle the case of the real-life brothers who were convicted in 1996 for the murders of their parents, José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez. While the prosecution argued they were seeking to inherit their family fortune, the brothers claimed – and remain adamant to this day, as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole – that their actions stemmed out of fear from a lifetime of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at the hands of their parents. Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story dives into the historic case that took the world by storm, paved the way for audiences’ modern-day fascination with true crime, and in return asks those audiences: Who are the real monsters?
The cast includes Javier Bardem (José Menendez), Chloë Sevigny (Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez), Nicholas Alexander Chavez (Lyle Menendez), Cooper Koch (Erik Menendez), Nathan Lane (Dominick Dunne), Ari Graynor (Leslie Abramson), Leslie Grossman (Judalon Smyth), Dallas Roberts (Dr. Jerome Oziel), Paul Adelstein (David Conn), Jason Butler Harner (Det. Les Zoeller), Enrique Murciano (Carlos Baralt), Michael Gladis (Tim Rutten), Drew Powell (Det. Tom Linehan), Charlie Hall (Craig Cignarelli), Gil Ozeri (Dr. William Vicary), Jeff Perry (Peter Hoffman), Tessa Auberjonois (Dr. Laurel Oziel), Tanner Stine (Perry Berman), Larry Clarke (Brian Andersen), Jade Pettyjohn (Jamie Pisarcik), Marlene Forte (Marta Cano), and Vicki Lawrence (Leigh).
Ian Brennan, Max Winkler, Paris Barclay, Michael Uppendahl, and Carl Franklin directed the episodes, working from scripts by Ryan Murphy, David McMillan, Todd Kubrak, Ian Brennan, and Reilly Smith. Murphy and Brennan serve as executive producers on Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story alongside Alexis Martin Woodall, Eric Kovtun, Scott Robertson, David McMillan, Louise Shore, Carl Franklin, and Javier Bardem.
Will you be watching Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story? What do you think of Charlie Hunnam signing on to play Ed Gein in Monster season 3? Let us know by leaving a comment below.