Mike Flanagan just revealed how he will make his TV adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie different from the versions that came before—and it involves leaning into what he established on The Haunting of Hill House.
After King released Carrie, his publishing debut, in 1974, it was adapted for the big screen just two years later. There have been multiple remakes in the years since, including a film with Chloë Grace Moretz and a Broadway musical, as well as a sequel called The Rage: Carrie 2.
Now Flanagan is putting his stamp on the classic horror story with a Prime Video miniseries that’s premiering later this year. In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ash Crossan at San Diego Comic-Con, he opened up about the difficulties of creating yet another adaptation of Carrie and how his interpretation is unique.
When he first considered remaking Carrie, he asked himself, “Why do Carrie again?” He knew that it was an important question to consider before signing on to the project. He encountered something similar when he created The Haunting of Hill House for Netflix because that story had also been adapted multiple times before.
The Turn of the Screw, the original source material of The Haunting of Hill House, is “the most adapted ghost story in literature, short of maybe A Christmas Carol,” Flanagan said. “I got the same question when we were going to be doing The Fall of the House of Usher, and people had done Poe before.”
“This is kind of the big question on Carrie, right? Honestly, it’s the question I had when we first contemplated it, which is why do Carrie again? It has been adapted beautifully. It’s the same question, by the way, that I got when we announced we were going to do the Haunting of Hill House, which had already been adapted twice at that point, once beautifully in the ’60s and once less beautifully in the ’90s, and with The Turn of the Screw, which I think is the most adapted ghost story in literature, short of maybe A Christmas Carol. I got the same question when we were going to be doing The Fall of the House of Usher and people had done Poe before.”
Now he’s working on yet another adaptation. With Carrie, the filmmaker realized he had the opportunity to create something that he had never done before, which is to “take a piece of Stephen King IP, break it into its essential elements and build something new out of those,” which is his favorite type of adaptation.
“With this adaptation, I had an opportunity I’d never had before, which was to take a piece of Stephen King IP, break it into its essential elements and build something new out of those. And that’s my favorite type of adaptation. I haven’t gotten to really play like that, except for Hill House and Usher.”
While he has done episodic adaptations before, like with Hill House and Usher, he’s never had the opportunity to use that same format for the literary king of horror. Flanagan has directed King’s Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep and The Life of Chuck, but those were all feature-length films.
Getting more specific about what viewers can expect from his version of Carrie, Flanagan admitted that the titular character and her mother are not the same Carrie and Margaret White that fans have seen before.
“We’ve taken things you think you know and turning them into something very, very unexpected, and that for me was irresistible,” he added. As a result, he boldly declared that this is actually his favorite project he’s ever worked on.
“Our Carrie White is not the Carrie White of the book, not the Carrie White of any of the previous adaptations. Our Margaret White, completely different from the one Stephen King contemplated. We’re taking things you think you know and turning them into something very, very unexpected, and that for me was irresistible. This turned out to be one of my favorite projects I’ve ever worked on because of it.”
The original Carrie from 1976 is an iconic movie that earned rave reviews from critics (and a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score). Stars Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie each received an Oscar nomination for their performances as Carrie and Margaret.
Laurie also landed a Golden Globe nomination, and the movie itself was in the running for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards and Best Dramatic Presentation at the Hugo Awards.
Prime Video’s Carrie has cast Summer H. Howell and Samantha Sloyan as those characters, with Siena Agudong, Amber Midthunder, Joel Oulette, Alison Thornton, Arthur Conti, Josie Totah and Matthew Lillard also a part of the cast.
The original book and movie may have come out in the 1970s, but Flanagan is bringing the characters into the modern era. The story of a high school girl with telekinetic powers will still play out on screen as before.
A premiere date hasn’t been announced yet, but Carrie will debut on Prime Video in October 2026.
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Summer H. Howell
Carrie White
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Matthew Lillard
Principal Grayle
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Samantha Sloyan
Margaret White
