Mike Flanagan Adapting Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ to TV: Who Will Star?

Mike Flanagan and Sissy Spacek as Carrie
Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images and Everett Collection

Mike Flanagan has added yet another Stephen King adaptation to his list of in-the-works projects. The latest? He’s going all the way back to the beginning of the horror maestro’s literary career with Carrie.

Deadline reports that Flanagan will be creating an eight-episode series for Amazon based on King’s career-making 1974 novel, which has been adapted to screen several times, but not as an episodic TV series. 

So what is there to know so far? Here’s a look.

When will Carrie be released?

It’s unknown at this time when Mike Flangan’s new vision of Carrie will premiere, but we do know that it is expected to be eight episodes and debut on Amazon Prime Video as part of the auteur’s deal with that streamer.

Who will star in Carrie?

No cast members have been announced yet for Carrie, but fans of Flanagan’s work will already know to expect at least some members of the so-called Flanaverse (that is, the collective of actors who frequently appear in his works) to return for some of the roles. It’s certainly not hard to envision Samantha Sloyan bringing some more of that self-righteous zealotry from Midnight Mass to a role as Carrie’s mother or Bly Manor child-star-turned-teen Benjamin Evan Ainsworth being creepy to Carrie. That’s just speculation, of course, and fans will have to wait for any official casting announcements to find out for sure. What we do know is that Flanagan will executive produce alongside Trevor Macy.

Where does this story fit into the Carrie-verse?

Previous adaptations of Carrie include, perhaps most famously, Brian de Palma’s 1976 adaptation of the novel featuring Sissy Spacek in the titular role, the 1999 horror sequel The Rage: Carrie 2, the 2002 TV movie with Angela Bettis and Patricia Clarkson, and the 2013 film featuring Chloe Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore as Carrie and her mother. This appears to have no relation to any of those prior adaptations and is instead a fresh take on the novel. 

What else is there to know about Carrie?

Perhaps the most important thing to know about this adaptation at this time is that Flanagan has proven to be one of the foremost adapters of King’s properties of all time — especially in the modern era. Flanagan previously adapted Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck to great acclaim and is also in the process of adapting the author’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower. In other words, this adaptation is clearly already in good hands.