‘Firestarter’ director teases a potential franchise based on the Stephen King novel

The latest adaptation of Stephen King’s 1980 novel Firestarter hits theaters and the Peacock streaming platform later this week on May 13. But just because the book is being turned into a film instead of a series, as is the fashion these days, doesn’t necessarily mean that there won’t be more stories left to tell.

In a recent chat with ComicBook.com, director Keith Thomas explained how he could keep Firestarter going even after the series of events that unfold in the upcoming film.

“I’m always down, I’m always down. I think we’ve got all sorts of ideas of where it could go. Obviously, Stephen King didn’t write a sequel. So all that would need to be explored, but I feel like we created a world in this, and some characters that I feel like their stories could definitely expand, expand and go on.”

Without spoiling anything, the conclusion of the book does leave Charlie McGee’s story open-ended. And not for nothing, but if filmmakers have found a way to make 10 entire feature-length Children of the Corn movies based on King’s short story of the same name, then it seems like a Firestarter sequel is hardly out of the question.

The official plot description for Firestarter is as follows:

For more than a decade, parents Andy (Zac Efron; Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile; The Greatest Showman) and Vicky (Sydney Lemmon; Fear the Walking Dead, Succession) have been on the run, desperate to hide their daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong; American Horror Story: Double Feature, The Tomorrow War) from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her unprecedented gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction.

Andy has taught Charlie how to defuse her power, which is triggered by anger or pain. But as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control. After an incident reveals the family’s location, a mysterious operative (Michael Greyeyes; Wild Indian, Rutherford Falls) is deployed to hunt down the family and seize Charlie once and for all. Charlie has other plans.

You can watch the trailer below: