Ever since the publication of Carrie back in 1974, Stephen King has been a very busy man. The author has maintained a high level of both quantity and quality over the years, stemming from his incredibly disciplined craft and writing routines. All of this has resulted in him becoming obscenely prolific as a writer, which has in turn resulted in literal dozens of different projects being made to adapt his stories into TV shows and feature films.
Over the years, many great filmmakers have tried their hand at adapting King’s work: Brian De Palma, Tobe Hooper, Stanley Kubrick, John Carpenter, Rob Reiner, Frank Darabont, Andy Muschietti, Francis Lawrence, and even Edgar Wright, just to name a few. But as it turns out, in the author’s own estimation, none of these filmmakers have gotten the formula quite as right as Mike Flanagan, the writer-director-showrunner who King called “the best adapter of my work” in a recent video posted to social media.
In the video, King was sitting down to watch Flanagan’s latest King-related work, the new Amazon TV series, Carrie. In the video, King praises Flanagan and the show before imploring viewers to watch the show as well, because, “If you like this, and enough people watch it, we might be doing something else that’s… really special.”
Shhh! Don't talk about this! pic.twitter.com/MUxoksZBev
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 9, 2026
So let’s break this down. First, what makes Flanagan King’s favorite adapter of his work? Well, there’s a whole host of reasons. Primarily, Flanagan is clearly a storyteller who is highly influenced by King’s work (long before he was making King adaptations, he was an outspoken fan) and understands the tone and style in a fundamental way. Even Flanagan’s non-King projects, such as The Haunting of Hill House or Midnight Mass, often feel King-esque in their construction and execution. Thus, Flanagan and King clearly have similar sensibilities when it comes to their artistic works, and that’s never going to rub an author the wrong way.
But furthermore, if you were going to design a gauntlet for a filmmaker to endure to win King’s affection, it would almost certainly look something like Flanagan’s initial run of King adaptations. The man wasn’t out here tackling easy projects; he was turning three of King’s most ‘unfilmable’ works in history to the screen, between Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck. Absolutely none of these were simple adaptations, and yet Flanagan delivered on each to such an extent that they all earned ravenous praise upon release from audiences and critics alike. That’s got to go a long way toward endearing a filmmaker to someone like King.
Stephen King hints at something "special" on the way from Mike Flanagan
So what’s this “really special” project King is referencing? Well, he could just be referring to further seasons of Carrie, which Flanagan has spoken about recently. But more likely, King is referring to Flanagan’s long-gestating take on King’s magnum opus saga: The Dark Tower. Flanagan has been prepping Dark Tower at Amazon for some time now, but getting an actual greenlight has proven difficult because of the sheer budgetary commitment for such a project. As such, it seems reasonable to assume that part of why King is imploring people to tune into Carrie is that Amazon is using it as a barometer of sorts to test the waters, and see if a Dark Tower series from Flanagan could prove profitable.
King does very much have his own horse in this race, as The Dark Tower is an iconic book series whose sole adaptation thus far was the 2017 film, which flopped, was shredded by critics, and was despised by book fans. So if Carrie proves to be a big enough hit, don’t be too surprised if an official announcement concerning Flanagan’s The Dark Tower follows soon after.
All eight episodes of Carrie are streaming now on Prime Video.
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