Mike Flanagan’s Book-Accurate Stephen King Adaptation Hyped By Star

Matthew Lillard teases what’s to come from Mike Flanagan’s take on Stephen King’s Carrie, praising the filmmaker’s accurate and exciting take on the source material. Announced last October, the Prime Video series is expected to arrive at some point in 2026, with Summer H. Howell playing the titular character from King’s 1974 novel.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, Lillard, who will be playing Principal Grayle, has nothing but positive things to say about his experience working with Flanagan, first on The Life of Chuck (2024) and now on the Carrie TV show:

“Carrie’s brilliant. Mike Flanagan – who I worked with on Life of Chuck – he is just the single greatest force of nature in this industry. We rehearsed for three weeks. He had plotted out every shot in the entire film. He had it down to the minute in terms of the amount of time it would take to shoot. He developed an app so you could see where they were in shooting. I mean, he’s so prolific and profound and such a great storyteller. So that’s the first thing.”

King’s debut novel has been adapted several times before, most memorably by Brian De Palma in 1976. Sissy Spacek played Carrie White in that film, which was met with positive reviews. De Palma, however, made some changes to King’s source material, and Lillard says Flanagan’s show will be sticking more to the book:

“The second thing is the cast is incredible. It’s three different sort of sections. It’s the story Carrie written by Stephen King. It’s really a pure adaptation of the book [more] than the original movie was. The De Palma film is really about sort of one aspect, but there’s a lot that happens in the book that’s been introduced to the show.”

Lillard goes on to praise the other actors in the Carrie TV show cast, who include Amber Midthunder, Alison Thornton, Thalia Dudek, Joel Oulette, Siena Agudong, Josie Toah, Arthur Conti, and Flanagan regulars like Rahul Kohli, Kate Siegel, and Samantha Sloyan.

Carrie and Tommy at prom in the 1976 movie

“And then there’s three different tiers – the teachers and the parents, and the students,” Lillard continues. “The teachers and the parents are kind of the varsity level of actors, you know, old. It’s just a way of calling the old actors. And then the kids…the kids are freaking brilliant.”

Lillard was impressed by his costars, but he reveals that he’s now also seen three of the miniseries’ eight episodes, making clear that audiences are in for a treat when the show does eventually land on Prime Video:

“They’re brilliant actors. I would watch them work, and I was blown away at their ability to be honest and truthful,” Lillard continues. “And we saw the first three episodes cut before we even left Vancouver, Mike had already finished and picture-locked the first three episodes, which was remarkable. But the show’s great. It’s really fantastic. The only thing that sucks is you have to wait a year to see it, because it’s so good.”

The story of King’s first published novel will be familiar to many. Howell will be playing the sheltered Carrie, a girl with telekinetic powers who is bullied by her peers and controlled by her overbearing mother, culminating in a bloody incident at prom. Sloyan will be taking on the role of Carrie’s mother, Margaret, with Midthunder playing sympathetic teacher Rita Desjardins.

Thornton will be playing Chris Hargensen, Carrie’s main bully, while Agudong plays Sue Snell, a classmate who initially participates in the bullying before realizing the error of her ways. Oulette is playing Tommy Ross, Sue’s boyfriend who ends up taking Carrie to the school prom.

For Flanagan, Carrie is part of his overall deal at Prime Video, and he is expected to spearhead other projects at the streamer in the coming years. One of these projects could be the long-gestating Dark Tower TV show. Flanagan is also set to direct a new Exorcist movie starring Scarlett Johansson. Lillard, meanwhile, can next be seen in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 on December 5.