Carrie’s Mike Flanagan Teases Remaking a Story Fans Know the Ending To: “I Can Honestly Say, You Don’t” [EXCLUSIVE]

Across Mike Flanagan‘s career, the writer/director has brought a slew of stories to the big and small screen that were adapting some already well-told stories. Flanagan’s trademarks as a storyteller, though, often meant that the assumption fans had about a story might not go the way they think, as seen in the likes of The Haunting of Hill House and The Fall of the House of Usher. Even with Flanagan’s most frequently adapted author, Stephen King, the same thing could be said, as the likes of Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, and The Life of Chuck still had surprises in store for readers turned viewers.

The same can certainly be said about Flanagan’s next project, the limited series adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie that arrives on Prime Video this October. Having already been adapted twice as a feature film and a TV movie, the story of Carrie is pretty well known at this point. Speaking with ComicBook at San Diego Comic-Con, we asked Flanagan what the challenge was in a big climactic moment like Carrie’s prom scene when the entire horror-loving world already knows what happens. “It’s one of my favorite things about this project, because this is one of the first times in my career I can honestly say you don’t. But it’s one of those things everyone thinks they do. I thought I did.”

Flanagan continued, “That’s the thing about Carrie. You know Carrie is going to the prom, but do you know how? And I think, you know, what was really cool about this is that we got to build something quite new out of these expected materials, and something that would be the foundation in another adaptation… in our house is just the aluminum siding.”

It’s no surprise that this is the direction Flanagan has taken the series, in part because the story has been adapted multiple times over, but because it fits into his established style. Doctor Sleep, for example, meshed not only King’s literary sequel novel, but used the aesthetics of Stanley Kubrick’s movie, leading to a film that was not only able to satisfy fans of the books and the 1980 film, but also gave King the ending he wanted from The Shining.

Flanagan revealed that the series itself will be setting up the fact that the big moments of the story may not be what fans are expecting. Flanagan noted that Siena Agudong’s Sue Snell says out loud in the very first episode, “Everyone thinks they know what happened at the prom, but you don’t,” using that as a major foothold for the series as it moves forward. For Flanagan, now set to debut his fourth Stephen King adaptation, he’s most excited to see how King fans react to the show’s direction.

“I will say that we go to the prom because of course we do, but it’s a version of the prom no one’s ever seen,” Flanagan said. “Our prom takes us out of the gym, of course, but also takes us out into a much bigger world that I don’t think Stephen King certainly hadn’t laid the groundwork for back in the 70s. And I think that DePalma never would have imagined for his adaptation. So it’s really exciting.”

All eight episodes of Carrie will debut on Prime Video on October 7, 2026

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