There are so many Stephen King novels out there (close to 70, if you include some that are occasionally labelled novellas and those that he co-wrote), but there could well be more Stephen King adaptations, at least if you count TV and movie adaptations. There are novels like Firestarter and It that have had more than one adaptation, for example (the latter was first adapted as a two-part miniseries, and later adapted as a theatrically released duology).
So, if there aren’t as many adaptations out there as novels, there probably will be one day, since King won’t be writing forever, but producers and filmmakers are unlikely to ever stop mining from his immense body of work. That makes Stephen King novels without adaptations rare, but those ones are extra special, because you can only properly experience them as books. Admittedly, some of the following have been adapted into either TV shows or miniseries, but what matters for present purposes is that, as of 2025, none of these have been made into movies. They could all potentially become movies (some would be easier to adapt than others), and of the few that have been adapted on TV, none have really been executed in ways that match the experience of reading the original texts.
8
‘Under the Dome’ (2009)
Say what you want about the ending, but Under the Dome sure does start with a bang. It’s an epic-length novel about a small town in Maine (Stephen King is quite fond of Maine, by the way) being sealed in some kind of impenetrable dome, and though communication with the outside world is possible, no one can get in or out. And various tensions/conflicts within the town get intensified, because everyone is extra stressed out, and the fact that the temperature inside keeps getting warmer doesn’t help matters much, either.
Under the Dome was done as a TV series in the mid-2010s, but it diverted quite dramatically from the source material, and its quality dropped as the show went on.
There’s a lot of suspense and death here, and if it were to be adapted as a movie, you’d likely have to cut out quite a few minor characters. But the core ones are interesting enough, as is the central conflict in Under the Dome, to quite comfortably sustain a somewhat simplified movie version of this premise. It was done as a TV series in the mid-2010s, but it diverted quite dramatically from the source material, and its quality dropped as the show went on, too, so Under the Dome is arguably waiting for a different adaptation to get it right; to do the source material justice.
7
‘Billy Summers’ (2021)
Since it’s a more recent Stephen King novel, it’s not as surprising that Billy Summers is without a movie adaptation yet. It’s probably a case of “give it time,” because this one would work well as a film. It’s a decently lengthy novel, but it’s also fairly focused on just a handful of characters, not really sprawling in a way that would make it automatically more fitting for a miniseries or TV adaptation.
The plot here concerns a hitman with a troubled past, dealing with the aftermath of an assassination while also trying to make sense of things that happened to him long ago. Billy Summers is one of the better Stephen King novels that’s devoid entirely of horror elements, functioning as a satisfying thriller that, like many King stories before, is also partly about the act of writing and storytelling more broadly, unpacking the potential catharsis that comes with narrativizing one’s past.
6
‘Insomnia’ (1994)
There are many pages that make up Insomnia, perhaps even too many, but it does remain compelling if you’re invested in Stephen King and his whole multiverse; the one he built before doing a multiverse kinda thing was all the rage. Insomnia begins as a book about an old man dealing with an inability to sleep, and while battling insomnia, he also starts to see various supernatural things.
These supernatural things gradually reveal a much larger conflict he falls into, and then there’s a good deal of crossover between Insomnia and The Dark Tower series, both the books released before Insomnia was published, and then at least one that came out after. It’s an oddly central book within the overall King mythos, and it touching upon so many other threads would make it hard to adapt, especially in a world where different production companies hold the rights to differing Stephen King stories.
5
‘Mr. Mercedes’ (2014)
Like Under the Dome, Mr. Mercedes was developed into a TV series, with that TV series also proving able to adapt material from the follow-ups to King’s Mr. Mercedes: Finders Keepers and End of Watch, with the three books making up the Bill Hodges trilogy. The book itself could be just one movie fairly easily, since it’s about a retired detective being taunted by the apparent perpetrator of a mass murder that, during his policing career, remained unsolved.
So, that ex-detective gets back in the game, and cat-and-mouse shenanigans ensue. Mr. Mercedes reads as a strong mystery/thriller novel, and it’s also the strongest entry in the series it ultimately kicked off. The relatively recent TV series means it would probably take a while for someone to try adapting this again, as a film this time, but it could always happen eventually.
4
‘The Talisman’ (1984)
The Talisman is one of those rare early Stephen King books without any kind of adaptation yet. It was co-written with Peter Struab, and scratches a similar itch to the early Dark Tower books, but without feeling too samey. There’s a boy named Jack Sawyer, and he has to find the titular magical item, because there’s a chance it could save his mother from the lung cancer that’s slowly killing her.
It’s a moving read, at times, and also quite cinematic, though the way it flips between worlds (with a place called the Territories being where the Talisman is purportedly located) on the page would be a challenge, at least initially, to properly depict on screen. Someone could make it work though, sure, and it’s a great read, meaning it’d likely work as a movie. And, for franchise potential or whatever, there’s a sequel out there, and a third book without Straub’s involvement coming, so that’s an added incentive, from, like, a producer’s perspective.
3
‘The Eyes of the Dragon’ (1984)
Published the same year as The Talisman, The Eyes of the Dragon is another early Stephen King novel where it’s quite surprising that there’s currently no TV or movie adaptation. But unlike The Talisman, The Eyes of the Dragon is a pretty breezy and short (by Stephen King standards) read, being about a royal family’s succession crisis, kind of, within a fantastical setting that puts more of an emphasis on drama/family conflict over more outlandish fantasy things.
That summary might not make The Eyes of the Dragon sound very interesting, but it is. It has simple but compelling characters, moves at a good pace, and the villain (recurring King multiverse antagonist Randall Flagg) also adds a great deal to the whole thing. Why this one hasn’t yet become a movie is anyone’s guess. You could say, “any day now,” but it’s been “any day now” for, like, 40 years at this point, so…
2
‘The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three’ (1987)
Technically, there was a Dark Tower movie, but it was pretty lackluster, and it also didn’t really adapt a specific book from the series, instead taking elements from King’s long-running opus and remixing them in an odd and kind of unsatisfying way. The protagonist of the series, Roland, does appear in that movie, and you could draw a comparison between it and The Drawing of the Three involving Roland during the early stages of his overall quest, but it’s hard to find many scenes in the book that are in that 2017 movie. Roland navigates New York during parts of both, but in different ways.
Anyway, The Drawing of the Three, the book, is awesome, and one of the strongest entries in The Dark Tower series. You get Eddie Dean and Odetta/Detta/Susannah introduced in the book, but they’re absent from the movie, despite being pivotal members of the ka-tet in the series. So, The Drawing of the Three does kind of remain unadapted, as do the Dark Tower books that follow it. The one you could most argue was “adapted” in 2017 was the first book, The Gunslinger, but even then, it’s pretty damn different from that Dark Tower movie.
1
‘The Stand’ (1978)
The novel so nice they adapted it twice, but only on TV and neither time particularly well, The Stand is Stephen King’s biggest single story, and only The Dark Tower series surpasses it in scope and ambition. There were multiple books in that series, though, whereas The Stand is just its own thing. If you read the uncut version, which is more widely available nowadays, it does feel like about three or more books in one, and so getting it right on the big screen might well have to involve multiple movies.
They did It in two movies (2017 and 2019), but The Stand would probably require three, The Lord of the Rings-style. The first act is about the end of the world, the second act is about two separate groups trying to build new communities, and then the final act is about the build-up to an ultimate showdown between those two established groups. With the right budget and care, it could work, but emphasis on the “right budget” side of things, since the TV adaptations lacked the money needed to do such an epic story justice. For now, you’re better off committing to the novel. It’s a long read, but it’s easy to get engrossed in, and it passes by quite fast for something that’s over 1000 pages long.
