Charlie Hunnam will star as Ed Gein in Ryan Murphy's 3rd 'Monster' series
'Sons of Anarchy' star Charlie Hunnam will play notorious American killer Ed Gein in the next installment of Ryan Murphy's 'Monster' anthology series.
Netflix News: Charlie Hunnam will star as killer Ed Gein in Ryan Murphy's next Monster installment
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‘Monster’ Season 3 Trailer: Charlie Hunnam Strips Naked and Wears a Suit of Human Flesh as Serial Killer Ed Gein
Netflix has released the full trailer for "Monster: The Ed Gein Story," which stars Chalie Hunnam as the titular infamous killer.
variety.com
Monster
Max Winkler previews what to expect from the new season of the real-life horror anthology, which hits Netflix Oct. 3.By
Lauren Huff
October 2, 2025 10:00 a.m. ET
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Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.Credit:
Courtesy Of Netflix
There's a new Monster in town.
But, in a lot of ways, Ed Gein, the subject of the newest season in the horror anthology series about real-life killers, is the original monster. As such, Netflix has characterized the third season of the hit show, which stars Charlie Hunnam in the titular role, as its most harrowing yet, but director and co-showrunner Max Winkler doesn't agree with that characterization.
"I don't consider it harrowing," he tells Entertainment Weekly. "To me, it's like a really, really interesting character study on somebody who is... so uniquely influential in American pop culture."
Ahead of the season's Oct. 3 debut, Winkler previews what to expect from Hunnam's "terrific" turn as Gein, and reveals how he "played" Murphy and Hunnam to cast the star. Plus, he provides an update on the hotly anticipated next season of Monster, which will be the first to center a woman — accused axe murderer Lizzie Borden.
Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.
Netflix
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Netflix has described this season as its "most harrowing yet." How so?
MAX WINKLER: I don't consider it harrowing. To me, it's like a really, really interesting character study on somebody who is... I worked with an AD who just texted me today who had said, she's from Wisconsin, and she grew up hearing ghost stories about Ed Gein, you know what I mean? And horror stories about him. And he's so uniquely influential in American pop culture because of Psycho and Texas Chainsaw Massacre and [Silence of the Lambs' killer] Buffalo Bill and maybe even American Psycho in a way.
And yet you see him, and you look at a black and white photograph of him, and he's just this kind of ho-hum, hooded eye, hunting hat, green plaid jacket — he almost feels like a Mark Rylance or something. You're just like, who the f--- is this guy? And how did this guy do these horrible things?
And because of Ryan [Murphy] and Ian [Brennan]'s writing and the research and where we got to, we were able to actually investigate on a big scale the themes of mental illness and how we fail mentally ill people in this country constantly. And isolation and what it meant to be a human being — specifically in this — a man in the mid-century in Wisconsin. Who are you supposed to tell your problems to or that you hear voices in your head? Who are you supposed to go to with these feelings of vulnerability?
Charlie Hunnam redefines the American nightmare in first footage of 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'
Get your first look at Ryan Murphy's next 'Monster' series, starring Charlie Hunnam as killer Ed Gein
I read that you actually suggested Charlie for the role of Ed Gein to series co-creator Ryan Murphy. How did that conversation go?
We just were constantly going back and forth with ideas and things we want to make together and actors we want to work with. I was talking about making something else with Ryan at that moment, and I was having dinner with Charlie, and telling Charlie about what I had been up to and telling Charlie about working with Javier Bardem in the last season of Monsters [The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story], which was probably the highlight of my life up until that point professionally.
And I texted Ryan from that dinner, and I kind of played them both on each other. I texted Ryan, and I told Charlie, and by that Friday night we were all having dinner talking about Ed Gein, who I knew very little about at that moment. And Charlie knew basically nothing about him, and by that Friday night, Ryan was taking us through kind of the master broad strokes of what he saw the season being. And by Sunday, business affairs of Netflix had reached out to both of us to make a deal. So it was like, it's kind of one of those things that I feel like probably can only happen when you're working with Ryan Murphy or maybe Steven Spielberg.
Since you're close with Charlie and you guys are friends, did you ever get freaked out watching him embody this character? Was there a specific moment or scene that comes to mind where you were just like, holy s---?
No, honestly, it was very... no. What freaks me out now is being with Charlie now and understanding just how much weight he had lost, because you get used to it with him every day in the freezing cold of Chicago, or in a studio here in Los Angeles. And we filmed it over five or six months. So at a certain point, you only know what you see in front of you, which is that he's not eating and he's losing more and more weight. And now when I'm around him, I'm like, holy f---ing s---. And he has his hair and his beard and his muscles back. I'm like, what the f---? I cannot believe that you put yourself through that.
Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'.
Courtesy Of Netflix
You're not a stranger to the dark world of Ryan Murphy's imagination — you've been part of Monster and American Horror Story and Grotesquerie, for instance. How do you clear your head or get this stuff out of your head? Or do you not even struggle with that?
I don't bring it home with me. I try to tell it as honestly and as truthfully as possible and approach it like somebody who's a researcher, you know what I mean? Okay, we have all of this information. We have what our research has told us, so how can we tell this as truthfully as possible? You want to get it right.
So I feel the pressure of wanting to get it right and what it's trying to say. But I am always aware that while we're making these things, we are very lucky — there's craft service, and we're wearing jackets in the cold, and we have heat warmers, or we're on a sound stage. I'm very aware of that — as the director, I have to be — and then it's my job to bring that to the actors to try and just protect them, because Charlie really put his body and his mind through a lot on this.
I worked with Ryan before, but I'd never been able to see something through from start to finish like I did on this. And knowing where we were going to get to, where the show ends in the finale, and knowing that ahead of time when we made the pilot, made it easier for me to stay true north and make sure that we were going in the correct direction.
You mentioned earlier all of the horror classics that were at least partly inspired by Ed Gein. This is very meta, but did you add little homages, or Easter eggs, or even just cinematic references, to those classics anywhere in the season?
Yeah, I think they should be all over. Never intentionally, but when you're looking at Alfred Hitchcock movies [like Psycho], it's like, I'm sure it gets into your brain no matter what, but it was never sort of intentional in the filmmaking of things. You will see that we — it's not homage — it's getting into the making of those certain things, and how those mechanisms came to be. I think all of the characters that are based off of [Gein], including serial killers, who up until their death would reference him as giving them ideas and giving them freedom and agency to pursue what led them to express their own insanity and trauma and all that s---, is very much a part of the overarching story I think we were trying to tell.
Max Winkler attends FX's 'Grotesquerie' New York Premiere at Spring Studios on September 23, 2024.
Arturo Holmes/Getty
What aspect of this season are you most excited to see audiences engage with?
For me, it's just Charlie's performance and how terrific I think he is in the show. The show starts in 1944 in Plainfield, Wis., and it ends in a very, very different place. And I'm excited for people to go on that journey. I don't want to give anything away, but it really takes you on a full journey, I think. And I'm excited to see if we pulled that off or not.
We're excited for that journey, but we're also excited for the next season, which centers on Lizzie Borden, which you are also very much a part of. What updates can you give us about that season?
We're going to start shooting soon. It's another character that it's like, oh yeah, didn't she kill her parents? It's like, yes, and I'm not a horror person and I'm not a true crime person —
You're not? Could have fooled me with your resume!
I know. I don't watch them, and I don't like to be scared in movies. I saw Weapons and that was incredible, but I had to close my eyes and plug my ears through a lot of it. But I think we try to do a similar thing, which is, You've heard about this person always — here's why, here's what they were going through. And it doesn't heroicize her in any way, but it gives context to what was going on in culture in 1890, how women were treated in 1890, and why some of them rebelled. The same way I really think what we did with Gein is a really interesting document about what isolation looked like in 1944 in Wisconsin for somebody who was very much abused and very much mentally ill. And what container do you put that in? Who do you go to with that? And how it manifests through that lens.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Side note: director and co-showrunner Max Winkler is Henry Winkler's son.....I just learned that today from an interview with Henry.
Charlie Hunnam’s ‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ Is Graphically Violent and Too Unfocused: TV Review
‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ is an overly graphic rehashing of the life and crimes of one of America's most notorious serial killers.
variety.com
‘Monster: The Ed Gein Story’ Review: Charlie Hunnam Dons Frilly Undergarments and Flesh Masks for Netflix’s Trashy Takedown of True Crime and Those Who Love It
Focusing on the figure who inspired 'Psycho,' 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and more, the latest installment in the anthology series also features Laurie Metcalf and Tom Hollander.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/monster-the-ed-gein-story-review-netflix-gd89pnh56
'Monster: The Ed Gein Story' Review: Charlie Hunnam Impresses, but Serial Killer Story Gets Bogged Down in Shock Value
Charlie Hunnam plays noted killer Ed Gein in "Monster: The Ed Gein Story," which infuses "Psycho" and "Texas Chainsaw" to tell his story.
www.thewrap.com
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Netflix’s ‘Monster: Ed Gein’ Has A Surprising Rotten Tomatoes Score
Netflix has just released Monster: The Ed Gein Story today, and its Rotten Tomatoes score is very surprising, given its high profile.
www.forbes.com
Charlie Hunnam Unmasks His Transformation Into Ed Gein for ‘Monster,’ Reveals Sarah Paulson’s Advice
The actor told The Hollywood Reporter that the work he put into understanding the serial killer was to depict a story about "mental health and the consequences of abuse and isolation."
www.hollywoodreporter.com
Breaking Down Fact and Fiction in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story'
Here's your guide to what is true and what's not in Netflix, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan's "Monster: The Ed Gein Story."
www.thewrap.com
Psycho as well and Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.
Forgot about the Psycho inspiration. Buffalo Bill, too, like you said, though they also took inspiration from the Philly serial killer, Gary Heidnik with the whole keeping women in the well/basement thing. They even gave Heidnik a nod in the movie when Lecter was talking about Buffalo Bill to the Senator, "He said he lived in Philadelphia, but he may have lied"
5 Iconic Horror Movies Inspired by the Real-Life Crimes of 'Monster' Subject Ed Gein
The most iconic horror movies inspired by the real-life crimes dramatized in 'Monster: The Ed Gein Story.'
time.com
Ilse Koch - Wikipedia
The only two black people in this....smh. could have kept them out of it and left this to the crazy cacs.
I didn't know about him. I just read his entry in Wikipedia.
I didn't know about him. I just read his entry in Wikipedia.
Not many people do. Three serial killers were hunting during the same period in Philly: Heidnik, Marty Graham, and The Frankford Slasher (who they never caught). They tried to pin it on a Black man, and convicted him of one of the murders, DESPITE everyone saying it was a middle aged white man. That all got cleared up later, but homie died before it did. That case is wild as fuck.
Charlie Hunnam and ‘Monster’ Cast Address ‘Ed Gein’ Criticism and the Dark Appeal of True Crime
The Netflix anthology's co-creator Ian Brennan refutes that the series glamorizes the murders: "I don't think this season is sensational at all. I think it's sensationally good," he told THR.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
‘Monster’: What Critics and Viewers Are Saying About the Ed Gein-Centric Season
As the show recently hit Netflix and sits at No. 2 on the streamer's top 10 ranking, The Hollywood Reporter rounds up the discourse from viewers upon watching.
www.hollywoodreporter.com
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