The newest adaptation of Stephen King’s debut novel premieres on Prime Video this fall
Credit: Everett; Amazon; Everett
NEED TO KNOW
- A new adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie debuts on Prime Video this fall
- Mike Flanagan, the series’ showrunner, told Entertainment Weekly the famous prom scene will be “completely different”
- Summer Howell takes on the lead role made famous 50 years ago by Sissy Spacek
Stephen King’s Carrie is getting another adaptation, and at least one iconic scene will look “completely different.”
This fall, a series-length version of King’s 1974 horror novel about a bullied high school girl with telekinetic powers debuts on Prime Video.
Summer Howell stars in the titular role, previously played by Chloë Grace Moretz in a 2013 movie and Sissy Spacek in the 1976 classic, for which she earned an Oscar nomination.
Mike Flanagan, showrunner on the new Carrie, told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published Monday, July 13, that the iconic prom scene — in which Carrie is crowned queen and pranked with pig’s blood dumped on her head — will deviate from past interpretations.
Credit: Amazon
“We’re getting there a completely different way and the events of that prom are going to be completely different,” said Flanagan. “That’s a wonderfully delicious and irresistible opportunity for someone who loves adapting things.”
Flanagan, who is also working on a new The Exorcist movie, referred to himself as a “King fanatic.” Indeed, he’s brought several of the author’s works to the screen, including 2024’s The Life of Chuck, 2019’s Doctor Sleep and 2017’s Gerald’s Game. King, 78, serves as an executive producer on the series.
Credit: Amazon
The filmmaker, 48, told EW, “One of the things I’m the most sensitive to is when people change things,” adding of his upcoming eight-episode version of Carrie: “This would require an enormous amount of change and invention and re-contextualization, but that’s kind of why I wanted to do it.”
Flanagan added, “If we’re going to tell the story of Carrie White in long form, how do we make it expand?”
Credit: Amazon
He explained that director Brian De Palma “adapted it faithfully and beautifully 50 years ago. … Then it’s been adapted twice after that, officially and unofficially. It’s been imitated scores of times. So for me, this was never going to be a straight adaptation.”
“The only way to approach it was to build something new out of the ingredients of Carrie,” said Flanagan. “Otherwise, there’s really no purpose in trying to retread ground that’s been so beautifully walked before.”
A logline for Carrie describes the protagonist as a “misfit high‑schooler” who “has spent her life hidden away inside the walls of her home with her fiercely protective mother, Margaret (Midnight Mass star Samantha Sloyan).”
Credit: Amazon
“After her father’s sudden, untimely death thrusts her into the unforgiving ecosystem of public high school,” the logline continues, “Carrie is forced to navigate a viral bullying scandal that tears through her community, the relentless pressure and casual cruelty of the social‑media age, and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers that rise alongside her adolescence.”
The cast also includes Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Joel Oulette as Tommy Ross, Josie Tota as Tina, Arthur Conti as Billy, Thalia Dudek as Emaline, Amber Midthunder as Miss Desjardin, and Matthew Lillard as Principal Grayle.
While reflecting on 50 years since the De Palma version of Carrie, Spacek, 76, joked to Entertainment Tonight in November that her clearest memory from filming is “how sticky movie blood is — it was terrible.”
She added of the upcoming TV show, “I’m gonna be the first to turn on my TV set to see it. I’ll be first in line to see that. That’s such a beautiful homage. I know Stephen King feels that way. I feel that way. All of the original cast feels that way. Carrie has found its audience with teenagers. We’re all just wounded teenagers somewhere inside.”
Carrie premieres on Prime Video this fall.
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