Stephen King’s Carrie is back for a new generation of horror fans to experience, in the form of Amazon Prime Video’s new miniseries. Carrie (2026) brings a mix of older and younger stars together for a new dark horror-drama crafted by Mike Flanagan, the man behind Netflix hits like The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and the cult-horror flick Lights Out. Working in a long-form format like television, Flanagan had a chance to tell the story of Carrie like no previous adaptation had (the classic 1976 Brian De Palma film, or its 2013 remake). And that meant making some big changes to Stephen King’s original text.
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However, Mike Flanagan is no stranger to expanding upon Stephen King’s writings: he took on the monumental task of marrying King’s The Shining sequel novel Doctor Sleep to Stanley Kubrick’s infamous movie adaptation of The Shining (which King hated). Flagan’s Doctor Sleep is hailed as a top-tier cult classic now, so fans have rightly extended him some trust to do great things with Carrie.
Carrie Showrunner Mike Flanagan on Big Book Changes & Show Inspiration
During the press day for Amazon’s Carrie miniseries, ComicBook’s Chris Killian had the chance to ask Mike Flanagan how early in development of the series he committed to making big changes to the novel. “It was kind of right at the beginning,” Flanagan said. “It was it was one of the first things I kind of baked into the pitch for it – and to Stephen King as well – was: The book talks about Kerry’s legacy as part of this kind of sorority of gifted women that goes way back through history. But she never lives long enough to understand that she’s not alone, and to see her place in that. And we had a chance here to completely open that up and to bring that into it. And that was one of the biggest things I was excited about from the jump: it wasn’t just Carrie. That we can really see that world.”
As Flanagan indicates, he got the endorsement from King to do the series is way, as it leaned more into a modern version of the King universe: “He was excited about it,” Flanagan recalled. “You know, I think he very much believed that the book is eternal, and that DePalma had adapted it as perfectly as it could be done off the page for a feature film… the only reason to do this was to do something new. And his universe expanded so much in the time since he wrote that book. I think if he had written that book later in his pantheon, it likely would have been connected to so many more of his stories in his world. So he was very excited.”
Carrie (2026) Was Inspired By Another Wild Stephen King Reboot
One inspiration Flanagan cites for the new miniseries is The Dead Zone TV series. David Cronenberg adapted Stephen King’s novel into a 1983 sci-fi thriller starring Christopher Walken; however, the 2000s TV adaptation starring Anthony Michael Hall (“based on characters” from King’s novel) took a very different approach, stretching out the novel into a weekly paranormal investigative procedural that ran for six seasons. The show still used the framework and arc of King’s novel as a guideline, but took its own longer, winding path through the main bullet-point events. It kept the core spirit of the novel and characters intact, even as it made big changes to the context and status quo of the story.
In other words, Flanagan has done much the same with Carrie: “I was thinking a lot about how they adapted The Dead Zone for television, which is something I thought was really, really, really well done. That it’s like, this is a character who is just brimming with potential… Let’s go there with her. Let’s break out into uncharted territory.”
Carrie (2026) stars Summer H. Howell as Carrie, with Samantha Sloyan (Midnight Mass) playing Carrie’s overbearing mother, Margaret White. Alison Thornton plays mean girl Chris Hargensen, Josie Totah plays Chris’ bestie Tina Blake, Siena Agudong plays Sue Snell, a popular girl who takes pity on Carrie, Joel Oulette plays Tommy Ross, Sue’s boyfriend, and Thalia Dudek plays Emaline West, Carrie’s new friend. Veteran actors in the series include Amber Midthunder (Prey) as gym teacher Rita Desjardin, Matthew Lillard (Scream) as Principal Henry Grayle, with Katte Sackhoff (Battlestar Galactica) as Emaline’s mom Amanda, Rahul Kohli (Midnight Mass) as English teacher Seth Peist, Tahmoh Penikett (Battlestar Galactica) as Carrie’s late father Ralph White, and Heather Graham (Boogie Nights) as Chris’ mother Madison Hargensen.
Carrie is now streaming on Prime Video. Are you ready for a new take on the character? Let us know in the comments! Check out the rest of our interviews with the cast and crew on the ComicBook YouTube Page!
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Image Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
