The Stand: Alexander Skarsgård plays Randall Flagg as a “sexy Trump”

The Stand is shaping up to the be the horror event of the holiday season, with an all-star cast bringing to life Stephen King’s post-apocalyptic classic.

The Stand, CBS All Access’ adaptation of Stephen King’s epic post-apocalyptic novel, is coming in just a couple of weeks. The book, one of King’s longest, tells the story of two groups of people who survive a plague that wipes out 99% of the world’s population: one “good” group who gather in Boulder, Colorado; and one “evil” group who gather in Las Vegas, Nevada, obviously.

If you think that a story about a virus that wipes out most of humanity sounds a little too real right now, you’re not alone. “I got spooked,” cast member Nat Wolff (Lloyd Henreid) told Entertainment Weekly. “Suddenly everybody was saying, ‘Oh, [COVID -19] is just like the flu’ [like in the show], and I’m reading about prisoners in Italy lighting toilet paper on fire to get attention – I had just shot a scene where I was doing that. I went into panic mode.”

That said, the bulk of The Stand takes place after the plague — known as Captain Tripps — has killed everyone, and is more about the clash between the remaining survivors. The “evil” characters are led by the charismatic Randall Flagg, who may be literally demonic. In the 1994 miniseries adaptation, he was played by Jamey Sheridan, who brought a kind of aging rocker vibe to the role. In the new version, Flagg is played by Alexander Skarsgård. According to cast member Fiona Douriff (Rat Woman), he comes off as a “sexy Trump.”

Flagg does like rallies held in his own honor, although he amps up his with gladiatorial matches and public crucifixions. “It’s a bit terrifying when you’re with hundreds of extras chanting insane profanities at Alexander Skarsgard lording over us as Randall Flagg,” said Katherine McNamara, who plays Flagg follower Julie Lawry.

He also has a habit of plastering his name across buildings. “We fell in love with the idea that Flagg would want to essentially block out any logos – and Vegas is obviously a place with a lot of logos – but that he would want to block out any branding that’s not him with a Flagg symbol,” said showrunner Benjamin Cavell.

That said, it sounds like Skarsgård is playing Flagg a bit quieter than Sheridan played him. This is the kind of role he could have “gone big” with, but Cavell says he pulled back. “He’s able to be so still and quiet, which was a brilliant choice and not what any of us expected.”

For Skarsgård, going big would have been too obvious. “Flagg’s such a formidable opponent, I decided to focus on his vulnerability,” the actor said. “He needs adulation and accolades from his sycophants, and that fuels his ego. That’s interesting because he shouldn’t care about tiny humans at all but still craves their devotion.”

It’s all sounding pretty promising. And the cast is solid, too, with the likes of James Marsden, Amber Heard, Greg Kinnear, Whoopi Goldberg, Ezra Miller, Heather Graham and more joining the fun.

The miniseries, which includes a new epilogue written by Stephen King himself, kicks off on December 17.

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