Early last year, io9 rounded up the Stephen King adaptations we were most excited to see—no small task, considering it seems like a King-inspired movie or TV show is announced almost as often as the prolific author releases a new book.
It’s time once again to peer into the King files and update some of those projects we were anticipating back in January 2025—and add some exciting new entries to the list as well.
Carrie
We were in pure speculation mode last year; this year, we have a lot more detail to go on—including a release date of October 7—and our eager anticipation has increased because of it. Mike Flanagan has said his eight-episode Prime Video series will subvert what fans think they should expect from his take on King’s oft-adapted first novel.
Going by the trailer, the first-look images, and the clips and details that were shared during the series’ panel at San Diego Comic-Con—marking Flanagan’s first-ever appearance at the event—it looks like this Carrie will lean into modern evils like online bullying while expanding the backstory of the misfit protagonist, her tense home life, and the toxic high school community that triggers her deadly powers.
The Mist
After Carrie hits streaming with its tales of teenage hell, Flanagan already has his next King project picked out—and no, it’s not The Dark Tower (at least not yet). The horror master has The Exorcist: Martyrs hitting the big screen in 2027, but his feature after that may very well be The Mist, a new take on the King story that was already made into an extremely harrowing feature by fellow King devotee Frank Darabont back in 2007. It was also made into a less memorable TV show back in 2017. We’d be skeptical of another Mist do-over under most circumstances, but Flanagan’s involvement equals automatic intrigue.
Crouch End
Carrie isn’t even out yet, but Prime Video has already dipped back into King’s catalogue—with a twist. The author’s only London-set story, “Crouch End,” will soon become the first of his works to be adapted as a UK production. The original tale is a spin on a police procedural about a mysterious woman and her missing husband, with some major H.P. Lovecraft elements, including sudden transportations to unfamiliar realms and slithering beasts. We’ll be eager to see who gets cast as the femme fatale, as well as the cop who gets pulled into the supernatural circumstances surrounding her.
The Institute (season 2)
The first season of the MGM+ series offered a fairly faithful adaptation of King’s 2019 novel about a sinister, secretive facility that exploits kids with psychic powers. There are a lot of King tropes involved in the story—some of which were already deployed in Stranger Things, which borrowed quite a bit from his writing over the years—but The Institute was still a thrilling, disturbing watch. Considering season one followed the book from start to finish, it would have been OK if it was a one-and-done series. But The Institute was a hit for the under-the-radar streamer, so much so that season two was confirmed even before the season one finale. It’s a good thing, since that finale left the door wide open for more.
Billy Summers
If the title’s not familiar, that’s probably because it’s such a recent release by the hardworking author. Released in 2021, Billy Summers follows an assassin—a war vet with deadly accurate sniper skills—who only agrees to kill deeply evil people. As we meet him, he signs on for one last job, which never goes as planned, does it? Though this is more of a crime thriller without supernatural elements, there’s plenty of horror to be found here.
Back in 2022, Deadline reported that Billy Summers had been snapped up for a limited series backed by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, which also made King-adjacent shows Castle Rock and 11.22.63. A year later, the project was updated to be a feature film in development, with Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way joining the production team, and the One Battle After Another star potentially playing the title character. There haven’t been any concrete updates since then.
Mister Yummy
King’s 2015 short story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams yielded this horror tale about elderly friends who realize that avatars of death have been circling through their lives over the years—and may be coming to pay them one last visit soon. This past June, Deadline reported that Australian filmmaker Ben Young had signed on to direct the feature adaptation and quoted his excitement:
“Stephen King was one of the first authors I ever read religiously, so getting to work on something that came from his imagination is a genuine honor. What I love about Mister Yummy is that the horror is inseparable from the humanity. It’s creepy, moving, character-driven, and exactly the kind of movie I’d line up to see.”
Fairy Tale
An adaptation of King’s 600-page fantasy epic has been in the works for a while, first as a feature and then, as was announced in late 2024, a 10-episode TV series from Paul Greengrass (who’d originally intended to make the film version) and showrunner J.H. Wyman (Almost Human). It’s been radio silence since then, but with A24 producing and the power of King still as potent as ever, here’s hoping we’ll see this one come to fruition.
It: Welcome to Derry (season 2)
After playing coy for a worrisome length of time, HBO made it official just last month, confirming Andy Muschietti and company would be unleashing a second season of It: Welcome to Derry. “Season two takes place in 1935 during the Great Depression and centers on the bloody massacre of the Bradley Gang, a group of bank robbers who stop in Derry to buy ammo and end up facing unimaginable horror,” according to a network press release. We all know “unimaginable horror” translates to “demonic clown” in this context, and we’re more than ready to watch Pennywise terrorize a new generation. There’s no release date yet, but at least we know the wheels are finally in motion.
Desperation
There’s some major clout behind this recently announced adaptation, with Sam Raimi producing and the directors of 2025’s Final Destination Bloodlines, Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, also aboard. It’s based on a 1996 novel that also has a “mirror” in The Regulators, written under King’s Richard Bachman pseudonym and offering a point of view on the same events—stranded travelers must fight for their lives when they’re targeted by a possessed police officer—in a parallel universe. There’s lots of potential for creativity here, and considering how much fun Bloodlines ended up being, we’re eager to learn more.
Cujo
We’d almost forgotten that Netflix was angling to do a new version of King’s 1981 novel that did for St. Bernards what Jaws did for sharks—possibly because it was already made into a sweaty, terrifying 1983 film anchored by a formidable Dee Wallace performance. But in March 2025, we learned Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, The Whale) was potentially interested in boarding the project. So far there have been no confirmations of his involvement, but we can likely assume Netflix, which has shepherded several King adaptations in the past, is still in the rabid-dog business either way.
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