Stephen King’s Praise for M. Night Shyamalan’s Servant Inspired Him to Read Fan Reactions Finally

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan‘s unsettling narratives have drawn polarizing reactions from audiences, with the writer/director avoiding reading reactions to his projects on social media, though he recently admitted that after reading praise that Stephen King had given his Apple TV+ series Servant, he decided to take the plunge to read what fans said about the story. As expected, almost immediately after checking out some of those reactions, he saw remarks claiming that he didn’t know what he aimed to accomplish with the series, despite having previously admitted to knowing exactly what the series would ultimately build up to.

“The third comment [under King’s tweet] said, ‘I love it but there’s no way Night knows where this is going,” Shyamalan admitted during a recent Q&A, per The Hollywood Reporter. “I do know where this is going! This is why you don’t read this stuff.”

Dating back to the debut of the first season of the series in 2019, King has sung Servant‘s praises, a trend which he continued as Season 2 debuted earlier this year.

Shortly after its debut, King noted that the series was “extremely creepy and totally involving. Two episodes and I’m hooked.” Following the premiere of Season 2, King confessed, “Servant is back on Apple+. M. Night, spooky as hell, crawls right up your nerve-endings, need I say more?”

Shyamalan’s films like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs delivered audiences creepy experiences that all built towards a shocking reveal in their third acts. Subsequent films like The Village, The Lady in the Water, and The Happening would go on to deliver similar structures, but fans were far less receptive to the directions he chose to explore. It’s understandable that fans might have doubts about the direction of his latest series, though he previously detailed that he knows what he’s working towards, even if he had some doubts earlier on in the story’s development.

“I had a kind of aspirational endpoint, after Season 1, when we were doing Season 1, but then Season 2 was when I said, ‘I can’t do this anymore until we know where we’re going,’” the filmmaker previously shared with ComicBook.com. “I have to know where we’re going. I can’t keep making episodes and not know exactly where we’re heading and why this person is there and what they’re saying means this. So, we worked it all out and I spent the pandemic the first whatever months when we were all home, everyone was shut down and locked down, just writing out everything I wanted and dreamed for the show for the remainder.”

The first two seasons of Servant are out now on Apple TV+ and it has been renewed for a third season.

What do you think of the series? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!