Guillermo Del Toro Reveals The Horror Directors On His Wishlist For Cabinet Of Curiosities Season 2

Guillermo del Toro's "Cabinet of Curiosities" hasn't been renewed just yet, but the cabinet's curator already has some great ideas about who could show up to direct episodes of the second season. Series creator, writer, and host del Toro spoke with IndieWire about the Netflix horror anthology that gave eight filmmakers the spotlight in its first season, and revealed some of the directors he hopes to invite for the series' second outing.

Among the filmmaker's dream collaborators? "La Llorona" writer-director Jayro Bustamante; "Tigers are Not Afraid" filmmaker and writer Issa López; actor, producer, and "Depraved" writer-director Larry Fessenden; and Boots Riley, who wrote and directed the dark satirical comedy "Sorry to Bother You." Some members of this impressive group are apparently closer to a done deal than a wishlist, as Del Toro also revealed that two of the four already had episodes in the works before other projects came up.

"We tried to get Jayro Bustamente before and he couldn't because of Covid," Del Toro told IndieWire. "When you think about Mexican filmmakers, there's Issa López. She was going to direct one of the episodes when she got 'True Detective' and she couldn't do it." Del Toro says he doesn't want to "spoil the entire second season," but also mentions that Riley was set to direct an episode before his show "I'm A Virgo" was greenlit for Prime Video.

As for Fessenden, who co-wrote the award-winning choose-your-own-deathventure video game "Until Dawn," founded the indie studio Glass Eye Pix, and has appeared in films like "You're Next" and "The Dead Don't Die," he's apparently Del Toro's number one pick for the show's next round of episodes. "Larry Fessenden is one hundred percent at the very very top of my list," Del Toro says. "Larry is one of those names that back in the days of the Spirit Awards I fought for him to be nominated with 'Habit,' which I think is phenomenal," the filmmaker continues, referencing the 1997 vampire film Fessenden wrote, directed, and starred in.

Del Toro says that he almost remade J.A. Bayona's "The Orphanage" with Fessenden, and has kept in touch with him since their Spirit Awards days. Other filmmakers on the list seem to already have ideas in the works, and all four are among the most interesting genre filmmakers around (I've decided "Sorry to Bother You" counts as horror — have you seen that horse transformation scene?). Hopefully, Del Toro gets the greenlight on a second season ASAP and the filmmakers on his wishlist end up available for a collaboration sooner than later.

If anything in season 2 is as chilling as David Prior's first season entry "The Autopsy," or as entertaining as Ana Lily Amirpour's episode "The Outside," it'll be well worth the wait. "Cabinet of Curiosities" season 1 is now streaming on Netflix.