Something Is Killing the Children Series at Netflix Loses Mike Flanagan

Fans of Mike Flanagan had a lot to celebrate today, as his new Netflix series The Midnight Club has debuted on the streamer, but they were also given some bad news, which is that he is no longer developing a TV adaptation of the comic series Something Is Killing the Children. The filmmaker himself revealed the news during an interview, admitting that his vision for the material differed from what the streamer was hoping for, as he implied that the project itself is still moving forward, just without him being involved. Stay tuned for updates on the Something Is Killing the Children adaptation.

"With that one, we were a good ways through our process, but Netflix decided to kind of go in a different direction with that property," Flanagan recalled to TheWrap. "So we're not involved with Something Is Killing the Children anymore. We love [creator] James [Tynion IV], we love the source material, and we wish the absolute best for whoever ends up with it, but that one we're not gonna move forward with."

He added, "It is a bummer."

Part of what makes this reveal so surprising is how successful the partnerships between Flanagan and Netflix have been over the years. His films Hush and Before I Wake had their distribution rights purchased by Netflix, whereas his film Gerald's Game was developed specifically with the streamer. Flanagan then developed the TV series The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass for Netflix, as well as The Midnight Club. The filmmaker also recently developed The Fall of the House of Usher for Netflix, with all of these projects already proving a hit with fans and critics.

Given that the comic series has a built-in following, it would seem like a perfect fit to have Flanagan bring the storyline to life.

"Something Is Killing the Children is a project that has been living in my head for a long, long time. It's shifted and changed in different ways at different moments, but ultimately I think this was the form it was always meant to take. There are horrifying things in the world that are only really visible to the young—unique societal pressures and terrors, monsters, unshaped creatures of fear and horror that prey on children—and much as we try to protect them, we fail, over and over again," Tynion said of the project when it was first announced in 2019. "This is a very grounded human story about very grounded human fears that take a more literal, horrifying shape. And then there's Erica Slaughter. She kills the monsters the other adults can't see. I am very excited for all of you to enter the world Werther and I have created, so you can meet her."  

Stay tuned for details on the future of the adaptation of Something Is Killing the Children.

Are you disappointed Flanagan left the series? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars!