Stephen King’s The Standis officially coming to CBS All Access on December 17th. It’s currently scheduled to air one episode every Thursday for nine weeks. The finale is written by Stephen King himself,adding a new endingonto the story that he’s reportedly been thinking about for 30 years.
The Standis based on King’s 1978 novel, in which a bioengineered superflu with a nearly 100% kill rate escapes from a Department of Defense laboratory. Two weeks later, the “Captain Trips” virus has nearly wiped out humanity, and the handful of survivors are mysteriously drawn to either Boulder, Colorado or Las Vegas, standing on opposite sides of a supernatural fight between good and evil.
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This new version ofThe Standhas been in development since March of 2018at CBS All Access, which picked it up to make a TV show after a 2014 film project stalled out. Josh Boone(The Fault In Our Stars) is attached as director, as well as co-writer of the first episode. Other writers on the project include former Dread Central host Jill Killington, Knate Lee(New Mutants), Eric Dickenson(SEAL Team, Masters of Sex), and Owen King (co-author of the 2017 novelSleeping Beautieswith his father Stephen).
The Stand’s showrunner, Benjamin Cavell (Justified, SEAL Team),said in a press releasethat “none of us could have imagined that Stephen King’s 40-year-old masterpiece about a global pandemic would come to be so eerily relevant. We’re honored to tell this sprawling, epic story, including a new coda that Stephen King has wanted to add for decades.”
2020’sThe Standstars Whoopi Goldberg, perfectly cast as Mother Abigail, and Alexander Skarsgård as long-running Stephen King antagonist Randall Flagg. The cast also includes James Marsden, Odessa Young, Jovan Adepo, Amber Heard (playing the psychotic turncoat Nadine Cross, sothat’sgonna make for some fun discourse), Owen Teague, Henry Zaga, Brad William Henke, Irene Bedard, Nat Wolff, Eion Bailey, Heather Graham, Katherine McNamara, Fiona Dourif, Natalie Martinez, Hamish Linklater, Daniel Sunjata, and Greg Kinnear.
A previous adaptation ofThe Standaired on ABC as a miniseries in May of 1994, starring Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald, with Ruby Dee as Abigail and Jamey Sheridan as Flagg. It picked up Primetime Emmy Awards for its makeup and sound mixing, with nominations for art direction, cinematography, music composition, and Outstanding Miniseries.The Standhas also been adaptedas a comic bookby Roberto Aguirre-Sarcasa and Mike Perkins, which was published by Marvel Comics in a total of six miniseries from 2008 to 2012.
King’s new finale forThe Standmarks his third major revision of the novel’s story. The original 1978 hardcover version was edited down by around 400 pages on King’s publisher’s insistence. King kept the excised material, however, and later rewrote the book for a “Complete & Uncut” rerelease in 1990. The unabridged edition updates the novel’s setting from 1985 to 1990, adds in a number of cut scenes for minor characters such as the Trashcan Man, and has a new epilogue featuring Randall Flagg.
The Standis the latest new Stephen King adaptation to come out, following a resurgence of interest inthe horror author’s workafter the box office success of 2017’sIt. Other King film and TV projects in various stages of development currently includeThe Tommyknockersat Universal,‘Salem’s LotandThe Long Walkat New Line Cinema,From a Buick 8at Renegade Entertainment,The Dark Halfat MGM,The Eyes of the Dragonat Hulu,Joylandat Freeform, andSleeping Beautiesat AMC.
