Stephen King adaptations coming to TV

By Constantinos Psillildes

Stephen King is perhaps the most influential author of the century in popular culture, and his works have often been adapted into movies, series, games and even serve as a set-up for other fictional work. A true horror and suspense master, King is a prolific writer and as a new generation of constant readers discover his work, so does the streaming audience. King has a lot of projects in the works. We won’t be looking at King’s adaptation of his magnum opus, the Dark Tower series, helmed by another horror master, Mike Flanagan. While both have confirmed the project is very much on, there are no new developments. Also, if you want to check out some of other King’s work on Netflix be sure to stream 1922, Gerald’s Game and Mr Harrigan’s Phone.

It: Welcome to Derry (2025)

Following the huge success of both It movies (with a combined revenue of over a billion against a budget of 120 million) it was only a matter of time before an additional project was announced. It tells the story of a group of children who face off against Pennywise, a nightmarish clown who feeds off peoples’ fear and resides in the fictional town of Derry. Those who have seen the films or read the books know that Pennywise emerges to feed every 27 years, thus providing the studio with an established canon and lore for a prequel.

Welcome to Derry is a nine-episode series that will premiere in 2025 on Max. Original director Andy Muschietti returns, along with Bill Skarsgård who played the titular clown in the films. The series will look into how Pennywise became the monster that he is and how he started terrorising the town of Derry.

The Life of Chuck

Adapted from a novella in the collection If it Bleeds, The Life of Chuck tells the story of Chuck, an accountant who nears 40 and comes to terms with his life. While sounding banal, Chuck’s decisions have a huge impact on the world and his life becomes the life of everyone. Weird, I know, but the movie premiered at the TIFF last week and received rave reviews, described as “genre-bending affirmation of life”. It stars Tom Hiddleston and is directed by Mike Flanagan, who, as we noted above, is currently working on the Dark Tower series and has successfully adapted Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game.

Salem’s Lot

Based on the hugely successful book by the same name, Salem’s Lot tells the story of writer Ben Mears, who returns to his childhood town to write a story about an abandoned house where he had a paranormal experience when he was a child. Ben starts to work on the novel only to discover that something sinister is taking place after the sun goes down.

A staple of vampire fiction in the US, Salem’s Lot has been adapted for TV before in 1987 and more recently in 2004.

It will be released on Man on October 3rd.

Overlook

When it comes to adapted King books, The Shining is the most iconic, despite King hating the Kubrick adaptation so much that he paid out of his own pocket for a direct-to-TV series that was more faithful to the source material. The Shining tells the story of Jack, a writer who agrees to relocate his family to a hotel called Overlook for the winter, as the hotel shuts down for the season. Battling his own demons, Jack slowly discovers that the hotel has a mind of its own and that is after Jack’s son, a boy with a telepathic ability called “the shining”.

Overlook is a spin-off that is produced by none other than JJ Abrams (of Lost and Star Wars fame) and has been in development at Max for years. Following a major reconstruction at Warner Bros, Abrams decided to shop the series to other platforms, with Netflix swooping in and securing the project. Details are as yet unknown but the series is definitely coming to the streaming behemoth as part of a larger deal with Abrams and his production studio, Bad Robot.

The Talisman

One of King’s earlier works, The Talisman is a collaboration with Peter Straub and tells the story of 12-year-old Jack, a boy who tries to save his mother from cancer by acquiring a talisman from a parallel fantasy world called the Territories. While no specific details are known, the adaptation will be a Netflix project and the streaming service brought out the big guns: the project is co-developed with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment and it secured the involvement of the Duffer Bros, the creators and showrunners of the massively successful Stranger Things.