Stephen King’s novel The Outsider debuted last year and was shortly after announced as earning a series for HBO. Ben Mendelsohn was previously announced as the star, with an additional 10 cast members confirmed by Deadline.
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Cynthia Erivo (Bad Times at the El Royale), Bill Camp (The Looming Tower), Mare Winningham (George Wallace), Paddy Considine (The Ferryman), Julianne Nicholson (Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders), Yul Vรกzquez (I Am the Night), Jeremy Bobb (The Knick), and Marc Menchaca(Ozark) join the cast as regulars, while Hettienne Park (Hannibal) and Michael Esper (Trust) are confirmed as recurring performers.
Erivo is set to play Holly Gibney, Camp as Howie Gold, Winningham as Jeannie Anderson, Considine as Claude Bolton, Nicholson as Mercy Maitland, Vรกzquez as Yunis Sablo, Bobb as Alec Pelley, and Menchaca as Jack Hoskins. Park and Esper will star as Tomika Collins and Bill Samuels.
In the novel, “An eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park. Eyewitnesses and fingerprints point unmistakably to one of Flint City’s most popular citizens. He is Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls. Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney soon add DNA evidence to go with the fingerprints and witnesses. Their case seems ironclad.”
“As the investigation expands and horrifying answers begin to emerge, King’s propulsive story kicks into high gear, generating strong tension and almost unbearable suspense. Terry Maitland seems like a nice guy, but is he wearing another face? When the answer comes, it will shock you as only Stephen King can.”
The series comes from Richard Price, who has previously written for The Night Of and The Wire, which will ensure that The Outsider will offer audiences a compelling tale of murder and intrigue.
For more than 40 years, King’s works have been the inspiration behind movies and TV series, with recent years seeing a swell in adaptations that confirm this trend isn’t slowing down anytime soon. The author has previously revealed that, when it comes to adaptations of his works, he enjoys them more when they stick closely to what he chronicled in the original stories.
“I think that they’re the best when they stick close to the books because, I don’t know, I feel a proprietary interest in that,” King revealed to the Associated Press. “I always think that some of the adaptations that don’t work that well are ones where they buy the concept, the basic concept, but then say well yes but we’ll do this, that and the other thing to it. So I always feel a little bit like they bought my launching pad and put their own rocket up, and sometimes the rocket explodes… The ones that I like the best are the ones where they stick close to the story and where I see changes and things that have been altered and I say to myself, ‘I wish I’d thought of that.’”
There is no production schedule nor platform attached, so we likely shouldn’t expect the series to debut until sometime next year.
