These 2 Upcoming Stephen King TV Shows Are Both Remakes, but With the Complete Opposite Problem

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For fifty years, Stephen King‘s stories have been consistently adapted for film and television, a testament to his enduring appeal. In fact, we’re seeing more adaptations now than ever before. While new stories like The Long Walk and The Institute are finally being brought to life, we’re also getting fresh takes on classic King titles. Mike Flanagan is currently working on a miniseries version of Carrie and a multi-year series based on The Dark Tower.

Look, Mike Flanagan has really established himself as the go-to director for Stephen King stories, and I’m excited about his latest projects. However, both of them are facing some significant challenges. They’re different kinds of problems, to be sure, but challenges nonetheless, and I’m curious to see how he navigates them.

What Mountains Must The Dark Tower and Carrie Climb?

It’s fitting that Carrie was the first of Stephen King’s novels to be made into a movie, and Brian De Palma’s adaptation is truly exceptional. It remains one of the best film adaptations of his work, largely thanks to the performances of Piper Laurie and Sissy Spacek. However, beyond the acting, the movie brilliantly captures the feel of the book and effectively translates it to the screen.

Brian De Palma’s film adaptation of Carrie is considered so exceptional that subsequent attempts to adapt the novel have struggled to measure up. This has been true of both the 2002 TV movie and the 2013 theatrical release starring Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore. Neither version offered anything new or compelling, and both felt noticeably weaker than the original 1976 film and the source novel.

The story of Carrie has been adapted many times beyond the three well-known movies. It’s also been a musical, both on Broadway in 1988 and revived off-Broadway in 2012, and even featured in an episode of Riverdale in 2018. Most people are familiar with the story, similar to how audiences have seen the origin stories of characters like Spider-Man and Batman repeatedly.

This is Mike Flanagan, after all. He’s a master of adapting Stephen King’s work for film and understands how to refresh classic stories. He’s planning a modern take on Carrie, reflecting the realities of today’s teenagers – things like social media and the sad necessity of school metal detectors due to gun violence in the US.

Flanagan understands that adapting The Dark Tower requires more than just a 95-minute movie – it simply wouldn’t be enough. Luckily, his previous Netflix series like The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher have demonstrated his skill at crafting detailed, extended narratives.

Luckily, the 2017 movie wasn’t popular enough to completely ruin the chances for future adaptations. Despite that film’s shortcomings, The Dark Tower series represents the most detailed and expansive world Stephen King has ever created. He returned to this universe repeatedly over 22 years, and even longer—30 years—if you include the novel The Wind Through the Keyhole, which takes place within the larger story.

This isn’t the first attempt to adapt Stephen King’s The Dark Tower into a TV series. Amazon tried in 2018, but the project was cancelled in 2020. However, Mike Flanagan seems uniquely suited to bring King’s complex, myth-filled story to a wide audience. He’s earned a reputation for quality, and he says the scripts he’s written so far are promising, giving fans reason to be optimistic about his take on The Dark Tower.

Which of these new Stephen King adaptations are you looking forward to the most? Share your thoughts in the comments and join the discussion on the ComicBook Forum!

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2026-02-09 22:17