Mike Flanagan just released a new version of Stephen King’s first novel, Carrie, and it is the first time it has been adapted as a TV series. Very few authors have as many books and stories turned into movies and TV shows as King has. That being said, the great movies and TV shows are wildly outnumbered by the lackluster releases, and some of the adaptations have been downright terrible. Still, filmmakers like Flanagan and Frank Darabont before him showed how to adapt King stories right, and Flanagan might be the most consistently great filmmaker to focus on King’s works. Flanagan also showed how great King’s stories can be in a longer format, made for television.
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With Carrie as such a great King adaptation, there are several other King stories that could do with a new adaptation turned into a streaming or TV series. King has one habit, and that is writing very long books, and this means most movies don’t have enough time to really delve into his stories. A TV series could be great to tell some of his more dense stories, and the new streaming format also allows some of his work to be delivered as he wrote it, without having to hold anything back.
4) The Stand
The Stand has been made twice, and both times were for television. The first time was in 1994. That version was directed by Mick Garris and aired on ABC, meaning that a lot of what happened in the King novel couldn’t be shown thanks to standards and practices. However, even with it neutered, it still remained faithful to the original story. The same can’t be said of the 2020 streaming series, which was panned by critics and dismissed by most Stephen King fans. The original story, as King wrote it, still needs to be told in a TV series or movie.
While there are rumors of a movie, with Doug Liman recently signing on to direct it, this is a massive story that has 1,152 pages, and it is perfect fit for a good, faithful streaming series. A stand-alone movie would have to compress too much of the story, and it would likely end up more like the Dark Tower movie than anything. If King fans ever want to see a version of the story that isn’t compressed and stripped down, this is the perfect novel for a streaming series reboot.
3) ‘Salem’s Lot
Image Courtesy of CBS
‘Salem’s Lot is another Stephen King novel that has been adapted more than once, twice for television and once as a streaming movie. The first was a very scary adaptation released in 1979 and directed by Texas Chain Saw Massacre director Tobe Hooper. It is a good made-for-TV miniseries, but it is also 47 years old this year. Remember, Carrie also had a spectacular movie that came out in the 1970s, and the new reboot helped update it for a new generation. A new streaming series for ‘Salem’s Lot could do the same thing.
‘Salem’s Lot is a story about a writer who goes back home to pen his new book and finds that vampires are slowly taking over his entire town. There was a 2004 miniseries on TNT that had some great actors, including Donald Sutherland and Rutger Hauer, but it just didn’t have the same fear factor that the original miniseries did. There was also a movie released in 2024 that ended up getting dumped on streaming. Having a new take on the story in a streaming series that follows the same timeline, but in today’s society, could be a great reinvention of King’s best vampire tale.
2) The Talisman
Image Courtesy of Del Rey Comics
The Talisman might be the second-most wanted Stephen King adaptation if it means a streaming series by someone like Mike Flanagan. The original book was released in 1984, co- It tells the story of a boy named Jack Sawyer who crosses into a parallel world called the Territories to find a Talisman that can save his dying mother. The Territories is a parallel world to Earth, and there are twinners in the two worlds
In 2001, King and Straub published a sequel novel called Black House, in which Jack was now an adult, a retired Los Angeles homicide detective who has no memories of his childhood when he went to the Territories. In 2026, King released the third and final book in the series, Other Worlds Than These, and it actually crossed over to the world of The Dark Tower. The Talisman has never been made as a movie or TV series, although Netflix had the rights before, and it is long past time that this was finally rectified.
1) The Dark Tower
Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
The Dark Tower is supposed to be coming, and Mike Flanagan has said that it is on the table at Amazon Prime Video, but it will require a major commitment from the studio to get it done. There was a movie made about The Dark Tower in 2017, but that was a story that was nothing like any of the books in the series, and it disappointed King fans who have been waiting to see something like this made. Ron Howard was supposed to make it as movies and a network television series linking them, but not even he could get it done.
King hinted that the success of Carrie could lead to something bigger on Prime Video, and many fans believed this would be the Dark Tower series Flanagan had been talking about. Flanagan is also making a new movie based on The Mist, so there is no word on when this will end up getting made. However, The Dark Tower is a massive work that would require several seasons, and it remains the most wanted Stephen King adaptation of all his novels.
What Stephen King novel do you think needs a new modern-day streaming series adaptation? Let us know what you want to see in the comments below.
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