Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam gets cast as the real-life serial killer who The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was based on in Netflix’s Monster series

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Charlie Hunnam ditches motorbikes for grave robbing in Monster

Charlie Hunnam in Sons of Anarchy
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It looks like Dahmer was just the beginning, as Netflix has announced that the third season of Ryan Murphy’s Monster anthology series has cast Charlie Hunnam in the lead role as one of America’s most prolific serial killers ever. 

The streamer shared the news on Twitter, writing, "Charlie Hunnam will portray Ed Gein in the next season of Ryan Murphy's anthology series, Monster." 

Fans of the show have been wondering which serial killer the third season would center on, with many suggesting that it could be John Wayne Gacy AKA The Killer Clown. However, now that Ed Gein and his horrific murdering rampage is the focus, we cannot even fathom what horrors lie ahead in the American Horror Story creator’s next season.

Also known as the Butcher of Plainfield, Ed Gein was one of America’s foulest serial killers who would make clothing and keepsakes out of human bones and skin from stolen dead bodies. However, it was found that in the ‘50s he was also responsible for killing two women and was working on building a suit out of female human skin so he could wear it and mimic his dead mother. 

Gein’s acts have inspired many horror movies and villains such as Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Norman Bates in Psycho, and Buffalo Bill in The Silence of The Lambs, amongst many others. Murphy has also used Gein as inspiration in the past for the character Dr. Oliver Thredson in American Horror Story: Asylum.

News of a third season comes just days before the second season, titled Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, is due to premiere on the site. Season 2 looks at the true crime story of brothers Lyle and Erik Menendez, who famously murdered their parents in the ‘80s. The series stars Nicholas Chavez, Cooper Koch, Javier Bardem, and Chloë Sevigny.

Monster kicked off in 2022 with Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which relived infamous killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s murdering streak in ‘80s Milwaukee starring Evan Peters as the crazed cannibal. However, despite Peters winning multiple awards for the role, the series stirred up a lot of controversy based on the fear that the show was idolizing a sick killer. But the series has only grown in popularity, spurring on a second season and now evidently a third. 

Megan Garside
Megan Garside
Junior Social Media Editor, GamesRadar+

I'm the Junior Social Media Editor here at GamesRadar+, handling all of Total Film's social platforms. However, I also write, covering all things film and TV for the site's entertainment section. I joined GamesRadar+ in 2023 and have been here ever since. I previously worked in communications after graduating with an MA in journalism. In my spare time, you can find me binging horror movies or getting lost in a cosy little game on my Switch.