Lyle and Erik Menendez, the brothers who were sentenced to life in prison in 1996 for gruesomely murdering their parents seven years earlier, are the focus of Season 2 of Ryan Murphy’s hit Netflix anthology series, Monster.
While Cooper Koch and Nicholas Alexander Chavez were cast as the brothers all the way back in June 2023, now we know who will portray their parents, José and Mary “Kitty” Menendez. According to Deadline, Academy Award winner Javier Bardem and Academy Award nominee Chloë Sevigny will play Lyle and Erik’s mother and father.
Spanish actor Bardem, 54, recently played King Triton in Disney’s 2023 live action remake of The Little Mermaid. He also stars in the upcoming science-fiction epic Dune: Part Two, in theaters March 1. Sevigny, 49, appears in the new FX series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, also produced by Murphy and debuting on January 31.
Additionally, the series has added Nathan Lane as investigative journalist Dominick Dunne, who covered the brothers’ highly publicized trial for Vanity Fair.
Monster previously featured Jeffrey Dahmer
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is Murphy’s scripted follow-up to 2022’s original installment, Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, which dramatized serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s murders. The series eclipsed more than 1 billion hours streamed, and Evan Peters received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Dahmer.
In November 2022, following the success of Dahmer – Monster, Netflix ordered two follow-up seasons and promised to “tell the stories of other monstrous figures who have impacted society,” according to Deadline. That certainly describes the case of the Menendez Brothers, who shot their parents José and Mary to death in their Beverly Hills home on August 20, 1989.
It took seven years, three trials, and many thousands of hours of TV coverage for the Menendez brothers to be found guilty of their parents’ murders. On July 2, 1996, they were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. But in between the tragic killings and the brothers’ conviction, the Menendez murders became one of the most famous criminal cases of the late 20th century thanks to its potent mix of family drama, Hollywood connections, dramatic testimony, and cable TV’s ability to blanket the airwaves with coverage.
We still don’t know the Monster Season 2 release date
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story is expected to hit Netflix in 2024, though the exact release date is unknown. Additionally, Deadline previously reported that Netflix will have exclusive access to Lyle and Erik Menendez for an upcoming documentary feature about the infamous killers.
Monsters won’t be the first series or movie to tell the story of Lyle, Erik, José, and Mary Menendez. Until Season 2 premieres, you can also watch the family’s true story unfold in the drama Menendez: Blood Brothers, the NBC series Law and Order True Crime: the Menendez Murders, and the documentary Truth and Lies: The Menendez Brothers — American Sons, American Murders.
Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.
