All 8 Upcoming Stephen King Movies and TV Shows, Ranked by Hype

Image via Prime Video Published Sep 8, 2026, 7:52 AM EDT Remus is a writer, editor, journalist, and author with an eye for detail and an extremely active imagination. He is an enthusiast of everything to do with the graphic medium, whether it's Western comics and their adaptations or manga and anime. Remus is also the author of the sci-fantasy novel Once Upon a Time in Hyperspace and several works of short fiction in the mystery, comedy, and horror genres. Sign in to your Collider account Stephen King is truly a master of modern horror and, aptly, the king of the genre. His stories, spanning dark fantasy, supernatural, gothic, and post-apocalyptic fiction, have often been a rich source of films and television for decades. From legendary auteurs like Stanley Kubrick, Frank Darabont, and John Carpenter to prolific modern directors like Mike Flanagan and Andy Muschietti, many iconic filmmakers have translated King’s chilling novels and novellas into terrific screen adaptations that rank among the best of horror cinema. Following the recent film adaptations of The Running Man and The Long Walk and the prequel series It: Welcome to Derry, several other exciting adaptations of King’s works are also in development for television and streaming right now. And the hype around these projects is not simply because they are based on King’s notable works, but also because of the spectacular talent attached to them. Without further ado, here’s our ranked guide to all the upcoming Stephen King movies and TV shows. 8 ‘Mister Yummy’ (TBD) Image via Scribner First published in the 2015 story collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, "Mister Yummy" is a psychological horror short story by Stephen King that chronicles the last days of the life of Ollie Franklin, a resident of an assisted living facility. An elderly gay man, Ollie suddenly begins to experience disturbing visions and supernatural experiences following the death of a fellow resident. As the lines between his reality, memory, and hallucinations begin to blur, Ollie is forced to revisit his long-buried secrets and confront his demons. "Mister Yummy" is reportedly being adapted for the first time into a film by Australian director Ben Young, with a screenplay penned by Troy Blake Abruzzise. Fans might recognize Young from his debut psychological thriller feature Hounds of Love, which was critically acclaimed and won several awards. First announced in November 2025, the adaptation has been in active development, with the cast and filming schedule yet to be announced. 7 ‘Cujo’ (TBD) Image via Viking Press One of Stephen King’s most terrifying and grim stories, Cujo, is once again being adapted into a film, this time by Netflix. The British Fantasy Award-winning novel tells the story of the titular St. Bernard, once a friendly pet dog of the Camber family in the rural town of Castle Rock, Maine. After he gets bitten by a rabid bat, Cujo loses his sanity and turns into a mindless, bloodthirsty killer who attacks his loved ones. Cujo and his story are also referenced in other works by King, including Needful Things and Pet Sematary. Cujo was first adapted into a 1983 horror film by Lewis Teague starring Dee Wallace and Danny Pintauro, which did not fare well with critics. However, it has since earned a strong cult following and positive reassessment as a suspenseful horror staple of the '80s. In 2025, Netflix announced a new adaptation of the book with Roy Lee producing and some reports that Darren Aronofsky may serve as the director. The upcoming version of Cujo is said to be a direct remake of the 1983 film, translated to a modern setting, but it has no official script, cast, or director announced just yet. 6 ‘Fairy Tale’ (TBD) Image via Charles Scribner's Sons Stephen King’s 2022 novel Fairy Tale tells the story of a 17-year-old boy named Charlie Reade, who inherits the keys to a hidden, otherworldly realm. As Charlie sets out to explore, he finds himself on an epic adventure while leading the battle between good and evil forces. When it was published, Fairy Tale earned rave reviews from critics and readers for its epic adventure and has been called a thrilling page-turner. Fairy Tale is being adapted into a television series by A24 and is currently reported to be at the pre-production stage. The book was initially planned to be adapted into a film with Paul Greengrass attached to write and direct. In 2024, A24 announced the switch from film to a television series that would hopefully do better justice to the 600-page novel. The series is expected to have 10 episodes, with J.H. Wyman as the showrunner, best known for his work on shows like Fringe and Almost Human. Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one. 🏕️Jason 🔪Michael 💤Freddy 🎈Pennywise 🪆Chucky TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 Something feels wrong. You can't explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty. ALeave immediately. I don't need to understand a threat to respect it. BStay quiet and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it. CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel safe again. DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the dark — I'd rather know what I'm dealing with. ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller. NEXT QUESTION → 02 Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply. ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people. BA quiet suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight. CIn my own head — the most dangerous place of all, depending on what's already in there. DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things. ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you'd expect is a threat. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours? APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence. BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out. CPsychological resilience — I've faced my worst fears before. They don't have the same power over me. DEmotional steadiness — I don't panic. Panic is what gets you caught. EScepticism — I don't underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it. AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer. BThe invisible — a threat I can feel but can't locate, watching from somewhere I can't see. CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me. DThe unknowable — something ancient, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself. EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it's too late. NEXT QUESTION → 05 You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't. AThe one who says "we need to leave" first — and means it, even when no one listens. BThe one who stays quiet, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does. CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to. DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed. EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off. NEXT QUESTION → 06 What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not. AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn't, but I can't leave them behind. BAssuming I'm safe once I've found a hiding spot. That's when it finds me. CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy. DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I'm dealing with. EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That's exactly what it wants. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it. AThe environment itself — I use the terrain, the water, the geography against it. BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn't expect. CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon. DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on. EImprovisation — I use whatever's at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force. NEXT QUESTION → 08 It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours? AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me. BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it. CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most. DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed. EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it. REVEAL MY VILLAIN → Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck. Jason VoorheesJason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit. He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategise, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues. Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge. The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance. You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected. Michael MyersMichael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention. But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound. Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is. Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had. You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it. Freddy KruegerFreddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised. You are harder to destabilise than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away. The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it. Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on. Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here. PennywisePennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it. The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly. You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away. That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise's worst nightmare. It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all. ChuckyChucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is. You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance. Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone. Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing. Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 ‘The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon’ (TBD) Image via Hodder & Stoughton A film still in pre-production, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is an upcoming adaptation of the 1999 psychological horror novel by King. It follows the story of a nine-year-old girl called Trisha who gets lost in the woods while on a family hiking trip in New England. Equipped only with her Walkman and basic supplies, Trisha struggles to keep herself alive and find her way back while relying on the hallucinations of her beloved baseball star, Tom Gordon. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was later adapted into a pop-up book in 2004. Back in the 2000s, George A. Romero was attached to write and direct a film adaptation of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, but the project eventually stalled. In 2019, following his death, the project was revived through his production company, and in 2025, J.T. Mollner was announced to write and direct the film. Fans might know Mollner from his critically acclaimed psychological crime thriller Strange Darlings and the 2025 thriller The Long Walk, another King adaptation. 4 ‘The Institute’ Season 2 (2025–Present) Image via MGM+ Developed by Benjamin Cavell and based on King’s 2019 novel, The Institute is a supernatural horror series that revolves around a kidnapped teenager, Luke, who wakes up in a facility where several children with special abilities are imprisoned and discovers the organization’s dark secrets. In the second season, after destroying the facility, Luke and some of the captives are free but hunted, and the story is expected to expand beyond the original novel. The main cast from Season 1 will reprise their roles for Season 2, including Ben Barnes, Joe Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, Simone Miller, and Fionn Laird. The first season of The Institute was a sleeper hit, appealing to genre fans but earning mixed reviews from critics. Though a tad campy, the series had plenty of intriguing and entertaining moments with thrilling sci-fi and supernatural elements comparable to Stranger Things. While the exact release date for the second season is yet to be announced, The Institute Season 2 is expected to premiere sometime in late 2026, with eight episodes, just like the first season. 3 ‘The Mist’ (TBD) Image via Viking Press Following the upcoming series adaptation of Carrie (more on that later), Mike Flanagan is set to write and direct an all-new film adaptation of The Mist, King’s widely praised horror novella, first published in 1980 in the Dark Forces anthology, followed by an edited version in the 1985 collection, Skeleton Crew. Set in the small town of Bridgton, Maine, the story begins with a massive thunderstorm followed by a dense mist that blankets the entire town, hiding otherworldly creatures inside it. David Drayton, the story’s protagonist and narrator, details his experiences as he and his young son take refuge in a supermarket, where they struggle to survive against deadly creatures and violent aggression from other people. Among all the planned adaptations of Stephen King’s stories by Flanagan, The Mist has generated particularly high expectations from genre fans. The upcoming film is the second adaptation of the novella, following Frank Darabont’s impressive and politically incisive sci-fi interpretation starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Toby Jones, and Andre Braugher. The new adaptation is speculated to be different from Darabont’s adaptation and is expected to lean into the original themes of psychological horror and religious fanaticism, as is Flanagan’s forte. 2 ‘The Dark Tower’ (TBD) Image via Donald M. Grant, Publisher Another Mike Flanagan and Stephen King project actively in development, The Dark Tower is a multi-season series adaptation of the fantasy book series. Published between 1982 and 2012, the books feature elements of the dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western genres. The overall plot revolves around Roland Deschain, an armed knight-like gunslinger, and his relentless quest across a surreal landscape to reach the titular mystical tower at the center of all realities, the nature of which is both metaphorical and literal. The Dark Tower consists of eight connected novels, one novella, and a children’s book, all of which are expected to be covered in the series adaptation. Flanagan’s ambitious project is also expected to be more in-depth and true to the original fantasy epic, mapping out the story and character arcs as per King’s original material, unlike the 2017 film adaptation, which was largely panned by critics. 1 ‘Carrie’ (2026) Image via Prime Video Developed by Mike Flanagan, Carrie is an upcoming miniseries based on King’s 1974 debut novel and the fourth adaptation of the book, with Brian De Palma’s 1976 movie version considered the most classic of all. The eight-episode series reimagines the story of the titular protagonist, Carrie White (Summer H. Howell), a socially awkward teenager living a secluded life while dealing with her father’s death, a strict mother, and high school bullies, who mysteriously develops telekinetic powers and exacts revenge. Samantha Sloyan, Siena Agudong, Amber Midthunder, and Matthew Lillard play the other main characters, with Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco, Katee Sackhoff, Rahul Kohli, and Heather Graham in recurring roles. Announced in 2024, Carrie marks Flanagan’s fourth time adapting one of King’s novels, following Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and Life of Chuck. The highly anticipated upcoming series is expected to include contemporary themes and challenges of modern adolescent life, while capturing the psychological dread of the original novel. Following the show’s premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2026, Carrie is set to stream globally on Prime Video on October 7th, 2026. Carrie Release Date 2026 - 2026-00-00 Network Prime Video Showrunner Mike Flanagan Directors Mike Flanagan, Hiromi Kamata Cast Summer H. Howell Carrie White Matthew Lillard Principal Grayle Samantha Sloyan Margaret White