What can we expect from Mike Flanagan's Carrie series?
- Carla Davis
- 12 minutes ago
- 2 min read
One of the many things I am looking forward to in October is Mike Flanagan’s Carrie miniseries. The eight episode series completed its principal photography phase in October of last year, and is slated to hit Prime Video in October 2026.
It’s not his first Stephen King adaptation - Flanagan previously filmed adaptations for Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck, and each of those projects was excellent (at least for this King fan). And he is set to adapt The Dark Tower and remake The Mist, so he is obviously King-approved at this point.
Carrie White is one of the most sympathetic characters in King’s vast library of novels, a shy, plain teenaged girl who is bullied by her classmates, as well as her own religious zealot mother. Teenage hormones, along with the stress of being bullied, brings out Carrie’s budding talent for telekinesis, which turns out to be empowering for her…but really bad for the people who pick on her.
One of Flanagan’s strengths is building empathy for his characters, tugging on viewers’ heartstrings along the way, so it will be interesting to see what he can do with Carrie’s story.
According to Deadline, the Carrie series is described as “a reimagining of the story of misfit high schooler Carrie White (Summer H. Howell), who has spent her life in seclusion with her domineering mother (Samantha Sloyan). After her father’s sudden death, Carrie finds herself contending with the challenges of attending high school, a bullying scandal, and the emergence of mysterious telekinetic powers.”
Carrie was first adapted in the 1976 film, which starred Sissy Spacek in the title role. Her co-stars included Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt, P. J. Soles, Betty Buckley, and John Travolta. Spacek and Laurie both received Academy Award Nominations for their performances (Best Actress and Best Supporting actress, respectively), and the film is still highly regarded. Though it has been remade/rebooted a few times, nothing thus far has beat the original.
Who stars in Mike Flanagan's Carrie series?
In Flanagan’s “re-imagining”, Summer H. Howell (who played Alice in Curse of Chucky) has been cast as Carrie. Samantha Sloyen portrays Margaret White, and she is known for her performances in several of Flanagan’s prior projects. Most notably, she portrayed the obnoxious, pious Bev in Midnight Mass.
Genre favorite Matthew Lillard (Scream) was cast as the high school principal, and Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco, Rahul Kohli, Heather Graham, and Ruth Codd have also been announced as appearing in the series. You may recognize most of those actors from The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and The Fall of the House of Usher.
As a huge fan of both Stephen King and Mike Flanagan, I fully approve of this proposed series. If Flanagan can’t pull this off, nobody can.