Monster Season 2 Finds Its Next Serial Killers
Monster Season 2 will cover the Menendez brothers, played by Cooper Kock and Nicholas Alexander Chavez.
Ryan Murphy’s hit Netflix true crime series, Monster, has officially cast its Season 2 leads, according to an exclusive write-up in Deadline. The anthology series, which followed Evan Peters’ Jeffrey Dahmer in its first season, will be shifting its focus to the 1989 slaying of José and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menéndez by their children, Erik and Lyle, and the ensuing 1996 media firestorm surrounding the brothers’ joint trial. The infamous Menendez brothers will be portrayed in the series by Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez.
With the first season of Monster performing incredibly well with true crime fans, Netflix is likely expecting to have a major hit on their hands for Season 2, likely launching the careers of their series leads into the status of household names. Cooper Koch, who is set to portray Erik Menendez, the younger of the two brothers, is best known for a number of small roles in indie films such as Less Than Zero, Swallowed, and They/Them, as well as a brief 2-episode stint on Starz’ crime drama Power Book 2: Ghost.
Like Koch, Nicholas Alexander Chavez, who is set to play the elder brother, Lyle Menendez, in Monster season 2, holds very few IMDb credits, though he is best known for his impressive 268-episode run as Spencer Cassadine in ABC’s hit soap opera General Hospital. Given the incredible success of the Ryan Murphy-helmed series’ first season, it seems likely that the two actors will rapidly become household names following the release of the show’s second season.
Monster Season 2 will tell the true story of the media frenzy which followed the slaying and subsequent trial of the Menendez family, in which Lyle and Erik confessed to murdering both of their parents with over a dozen shotgun blasts, ultimately resulting in their sentencing of life in prison.
The brothers have long since maintained that their actions were in self-defense after threatening to expose their father for a series of heinous sexual abuse crimes, though the murky information surrounding the trial left jurors undecided for weeks on end.
Shockingly, the case continues to unfold to this day, with new information being made public as recently as this past May. After being sentenced to life in prison back in 1996, Erik and Lyle Menendez have filed for a new hearing on the grounds that former Menudo singer Roy Rosselló claims to have also been molested by José Menendez over 30 years ago, seemingly corroborating the allegations made by the brothers in their initial trial.
Whether or not the events of Monster season 2 will cover the latest updates in the trial remain unknown, though the opportunity seems rife for a true crime intrigue story.
Of course, it may still take some time before audiences are able to watch Monster season 2, as the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike has placed the entire production on an indefinite hiatus.
According to sources close to Ryan Murphy, no work has moved forward on the series since the strike began back in May, leaving true crime fans to stick to their podcasts and Wikipedia articles to scratch their morbid murder itch for the time being.
