The Stand: Odessa Young Calls the Series’ Timing a “Strange Turn of Events”

When The Stand debuts on CBS All Access Thursday, December 17th, the adaptation of Stephen King’s iconic novel about good versus evil that just so happens to see humanity decimated by a pandemic will arrive at a time when the real world is dealing with an actual pandemic. It’s unexpected timing for the long in the works series, that was filming just as COVID-19 began to spread earlier this year and according to series star Odessa Young, life imitating art made for a strange turn of events.

Speaking with ComicBook.com Young, who plays Frannie Goldsmith in The Stand, said that The Stand coming out now is something that feels pretty wild, especially looking back at filming.

“It feels pretty crazy, feels pretty wild. We were making jokes, not that we’re callous, but at the start of the pandemic nobody ever imagined that we would be where we are today,” Young said. “And so, at the time, we were going, ‘do you know, is this something that CBS orchestrated to create hype for?’ you know. But it’s a wildly, it’s a strange feeling to be part of something that is so prescient and it’s even stranger, when you consider the history of The Stand, that this has been a story that has been around for 40 years and for some strange turn of events we’ve decided to adapt it now. It’s just an incredibly weird phenomenon that I haven’t put my finger on yet, but I’m still trying to work out.”

Series executive producer Taylor Elmore shared similar sentiments, noting that they did indeed joke early on but now, he’s just hopeful that the real world will have better luck than the fictional world of The Stand.

“I remember when we were in Vancouver shooting and we started hearing noise about it,” Elmore said about the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. “When then the notices started going up, being taped up in the bathrooms, saying ‘wash your hands, be extra careful, there’s this cold going around.’ And I don’t think anybody anticipated just how devastating this was going to be, but we certainly were making jokes about it at first and then, later on, we’re not making so many jokes about it. We wound up having to cut the entire show remotely from home, essentially, which is unprecedented for a show this size. I hate to say it was a good challenge because that sort of undercuts how awful everything is that led up to the challenge, but it’s been really interesting to try and work. I kind of got this feeling when it started getting awful that it would be no fun to work on the show, but it hasn’t been the case at all really. It’s been kind of therapeutic really, to get a chance to get through that stuff and see the other side. And, of course, the other side of Captain Trips is a hellscape but hopefully we’ll have better luck.”

The Stand is set to premiere on Thursday, December 17. New episodes will premiere weekly exclusively for CBS All Access subscribers.