‘Monster’ Star Charlie Hunnam Kicks Off Production on Season 4 with Ella Beatty Portraying Lizzie Borden

It’s time for a new monster to take center stage.

On Thursday, Oct. 9, less than a week after Monster: The Ed Gein Story premiered, Netflix announced that production has begun on season 4 of Ryan Murphy’s true-crime anthology series.

Season 4 will follow Lizzie Borden, marking the first time that the series puts a woman at the center of a Monster installment. Lizzie was accused of murdering her father, Andrew Borden, and her stepmother, Abby, who died in 1892. She was ultimately acquitted on the charges, and the case remains unsolved.

Ella Beatty will portray Lizzie, with season 3 star Charlie Hunnam returning as Andrew. Beatty’s casting news was first confirmed in July. “Cannot believe I get to work with geniuses such as these,” the 25-year-old wrote in an Instagram post at the time.

Additionally, Rebecca Hall has joined the cast as Abby, and Billie Lourd will appear as Lizzie’s sister, Emma. Vicky Krieps and Jessica Barden round out the ensemble.

Season 3 was a “joyous” experience for Hunnam, 45, who opened up to PEOPLE about filming the show at the New York City premiere on Oct. 4.

“So there’s the subject matter and then there’s [the] actual process, and we all felt really good about the work we were doing,” he said. “And so actually in terms of the experience we had of trying to make this show every day —  just the actual putting our craft into effect — it was actually really joyous and light.”

“We were proud of ourselves and we were reaching for something,” he continued. “And not every day, but more often than not, managing to grab a hold of it. So it was really actually — I don’t want to say a fun experience […] but it was very satisfying and a beautiful experience.”

Still, the Sons of Anarchy star has been open about his initial hesitance to take on the role.

“Once I said yes to this, I thought I’d made a horrible mistake,” Hunnam told Entertainment Weekly. “I started researching it, reading all the books about Ed Gein, and I fell into a full panic. I just thought there might be no coming back from this. This is so dark, to inhabit this character.”

The Monster anthology series kicked off in 2022 with Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which saw Evan Peters portray the serial killer.

Season 2 followed Lyle and Erik Menendez, who were convicted of the 1989 murders of their parents, Jose and Kitty, and sentenced to life in prison in 1996. Monster: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story starred Nicholas Alexander Chavez as Lyle and Cooper Koch as Erik and premiered in 2024.

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The first three seasons of Monster are now streaming on Netflix.