More than 50 years after Stephen King‘s first published novel, Mike Flanagan has teased he’s found a new way to adapt Carrie.
With the eight-episode Amazon limited series wrapping production in October, the horror filmmaker recently explained why he broke his “no sequels” or remakes rule for the 1974 novel, which has already spawned four movies and a stage musical.
“A new way presented itself, something that felt very timely and new,” Flanagan told Empire Magazine.
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“I’ve really enjoyed chasing the things that hadn’t already been done, and trying to find new ways into them,” he explained. “And I used to say, ‘No sequels.’”
Flanagan previously broke that rule when he read King’s 2013 novel Doctor Sleep, a sequel to 1977’s The Shining. “That threw that in my face,” he said, referring to his 2019 feature adaptation.
“It proved to be irresistible,” said Flanagan. “The Shining is a story about alcoholism, and because Steve wrote this sequel of sorts that is a story about recovery, it presented this thing of, ‘Oh, we’re painting the second side of the same coin; we’re completing a story.’”
Carrie is described as a reimagining of the story of misfit high schooler Carrie White, who has spent her life in seclusion with her domineering mother. After her father’s sudden death, Carrie finds herself contending with the challenges of attending high school, a bullying scandal and the emergence of mysterious telekinetic powers.
After Deadline exclusively announced Flanagan’s Carrie in October 2024, he found his titular telekinetic teen in Summer Howell, rounding out the cast with Matthew Lillard as Principal Grayle, Samantha Sloyan as Carrie’s mom, Margaret White, Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Thalia Dudek as Emaline, Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Amber Midthunder as Miss Desjardin, Josie Totah as Tina, and Arthur Conti as Billy and Joel Oulette as Tommy. Other additions include Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco, Katee Sackhoff, Rahul Kohli, Crystal Balint, and Danielle Klaudt and Heather Graham.