Josh Hartnett in Below? Mike Flanagan's The Mist Remake Should Cast Him

Josh Hartnett is the anchor of Netflix's new six-episode horror series *Below*, and Screen Rant thinks that performance makes him the ideal choice for Mike Flanagan's upcoming remake of Stephen King's *The Mist*.

*Below* starts with Lovecraftian dread: a small town faces a mysterious creature emerging from the water around them. But the show shifts into an eco-thriller about capitalism, global warming, and the effects of resettlement on humans and aquatic animals. Screen Rant says the sudden tone change holds the show back from its potential.

Still, Hartnett shines as Calvin, an over-protective father whose relationship with his son Wade mirrors David Drayton's bond with Billy in Frank Darabont's 2007 adaptation of *The Mist*. Both fathers face incomprehensible threats, but their attempts to protect their sons end up harming them.

Screen Rant notes that Hartnett has never starred in a direct Stephen King adaptation, but he's become a horror staple. His *Penny Dreadful* character Ethan Chandler fits the gunslinger archetype from King's *The Dark Tower* books, and carries generational guilt and trauma like characters in *IT*, *Doctor Sleep*, and *Pet Sematary*. Chandler is also a reluctant monster, bound by a lycanthropic curse.

Flanagan's plans for *The Mist* aren't public yet, but if he adapts the core character beats from the original story and Darabont's film, Screen Rant makes a strong case that Hartnett should play David Drayton. After *Below*, it's easy to see why.

• Below
• Josh Hartnett
• Mike Flanagan
• Netflix
• Stephen King
• The Mist