Everything We Know About Monster Season 3

First Jeffrey Dahmer, then Lyle and Erik Menendez. Now, the hit Netflix crime series Monster has its next infamous subject: killer and grave robber Ed Gein.

Showrunner Ryan Murphy announced at a premiere event on Monday that actor Charlie Hunnam will portray the infamous Gein in the third installment of the anthology series. Production for Monster Season 3 begins next month, according to the streamer.

The announcement comes as the show’s highly anticipated second season, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, is set to drop Thursday. Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Cooper Koch play the notorious brothers who murdered their parents in 1989.

Here’s everything you need to know about Gein and his upcoming portrayal in Monster Season 3.

Who Was Ed Gein?

Gein, born in August 1906 in Wisconsin, became known as the “Butcher of Plainfield.” He admitted to the murders of two women, Mary Hogan in 1954 and Bernice Worden in 1957, but was believed to be connected to a number of unsolved cases.

While investigating Gein’s house following Worden’s disappearance, police gruesomely discovered he kept human organs in jars and had fashioned clothing items and furniture out of human bones and body parts. Gein also admitted to digging up corpses to practice necrophilia and to make masks and suits out of human skin. He was convicted of Worden’s murder in November 1968 but found insane at the time of the killing and committed to a psychiatric facility.

Gein died of complications from lung cancer and respiratory illnesses on July 26, 1984. His horrifying crimes at least partially inspired a number of notable fictional killers, including Norman Bates from the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho (1960), Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Who Is Playing Ed Gein in Monster?

English Charlie Hunnam has acted in Sons of Anarchy and The Gentlemen.

Charlie Hunnam will portray Gein in Monster Season 3.

The 41-year-old English actor is best known for his role as Jax Teller on the FX drama Sons of Anarchy. Elsewhere, he played the legendary King Arthur in the 2015 movie King Arthur: Legend of the Sword and has appeared in 2019’s The Gentlemen, starring Matthew McConaughey, and 2023’s Rebel Moon–Part One: A Child of Fire.

No other casting information has been announced.

When Will Monster Season 3 Release?

A premiere date hasn’t been announced for Monster Season 3, but production begins next month.

Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story debuts on Netflix this Thursday, almost two full years after the first season featuring Jeffrey Dahmer in 2022. A similar gap seems possible.

Monster Has Been a Major Hit for Netflix

The first season of Monster, which featured Evan Peters as Jeffrey Dahmer, is currently Netflix’s third most-watched English language show in history. It eclipsed 1 billion hours streamed in its first 60 days, one of only four series to do so.

Monster was also well-received by critics, despite its disturbing subject matter. Peters won a Golden Globe for his performance as Dahmer, and Niecy Nash received an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress for portraying Dahmer’s real-life neighbor Glenda Cleveland.

Watch Dahmer–Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story or Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix

Murphy and the streamer are hoping for similar buzz this week with the release of Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. In addition to Chavez and Cook as the Menendez brothers, the cast features Academy Award winner Javier Bardem as their father, José Menendez, and Chloë Sevigny as their mother Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez.

“When you make a show like our first season Dahmer, which was so unexpectedly successful, the thing that was our way in… was really about looking at who gets justice and different forms of social injustice,” Murphy recently said at a panel discussion, according to IndieWire. “And I felt the same way about this season [with the Menendez brothers]. This season was about abuse. Who is believed, who’s not believed.”

Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.