The Stand is commonly regarded as one of Stephen King’s best novels. The lengthy story shows society descending into anarchy after a modified strain of influenza snowballs into a pandemic that kills off 99% of the world’s population. The survivors end up caught in a war between good and evil, embodied by the 108-year-old Mother Abagail and the sinister ‘Dark Man’ Randall Flagg.
It’s an ambitious and multi-layered narrative, making the book a wild success on its release in 1978. George Romero was initially tapped for a movie adaptation, producing a script in collaboration with King for a roughly three-hour film. But, at the last minute, Warner Bros. backed out. Plans were then made to adapt it for television, but networks in the 1980s claimed that audiences did not “want to see the end of the world, particularly in prime time” (which seems particularly amusing from a modern perspective).
The Stand eventually saw live action in an eight-hour TV miniseries in 1994, receiving positive reviews and a slew of Emmy nominations. And now, with Stephen King a very hot property and post-apocalyptic drama still in style, CBS are having another stab at it, with The New Mutants director Josh Boone heading the project.
While an exact premiere date hasn’t been set just yet, we now know that it’ll hit screens in “the fourth quarter of 2020.” The show will consist of a ten-episode series with a brand new ending written by King himself. The extensive cast list has also been released, with The Stand featuring Alexander Skarsgård, Whoopi Goldberg, Jovan Adepo, Owen Teague, Greg Kinnear, Brad William Henke, Nat Wolff, Daniel Sunjata, James Marsden, Amber Heard, Odessa Young, Eion Bailey, Katherine McNamara, Heather Graham, Marilyn Manson, Hamish Linklater and Henry Zaga.
As a fan of both the book and the 1994 miniseries, I can’t wait to see a contemporary take on this story and as soon as we learn more about what CBS has planned, we’ll be sure to let you know.