Mike Flanagan has proposed a fresh version of Carrie for the small screen on Prime Video. Intended as a miniseries and streamed on the platform in question, Carrie places the beloved character, who originally emerged from pages at the behest of Stephen King, at the heart of a new tale. According to the creator and director, this is meant to be a “revitalization” of the cherished novel and, in fact, it features several changes, all approved by the King of Horror himself.
Carrie, the showrunner explains all the changes made to the novel and how he received Stephen King’s full backing
Mike Flanagan is first and foremost a Stephen King fan, which is why he approached the details of Carrie with meticulous care. In an interview with People, he explained how he decided to weave new elements into the story of the power-endowed teenager: “We were fully aware of what the audience would expect. And as a super fan, as someone who has always been passionate about Stephen King’s work, it was truly important for me to try to anticipate the reactions I would have as a mere spectator. This is not the Carrie White we previously saw. It is not the Margaret White we previously saw.”
The young Carrie is portrayed by Summer H. Howell, who explained what motivated her the most: “Mike clearly had in mind a different version of the character. She is such an optimistic and bright girl, eager to explore the world and meet people, and to encounter individuals unlike her parents.” Samantha Sloyan, on the other hand, plays Margaret, Carrie’s mother, and the actress revealed that she appreciated the revisiting of this character: “We start from the assumption of a loving mother. Even though I still think Margaret is dangerous and serves as the force Carrie confronts, in order to reach those moments of pressure, from a loving perspective, I don’t know, it wasn’t that hard to empathize with her, simply because I felt her as a mother who experienced a great deal of pain watching her daughter grow up and leave her, or rather, what she felt she was letting go.”
Another change brought to the TV series is certainly the grand finale: “It isn’t the high school prom we’ve seen so far. In the book, Stephen King highlights the broader world surrounding Carrie, the fact that she is part of a much larger group of gifted women. Simply, in none of the other adaptations does anyone live long enough to realize it. Yet the tragedy of the prom is so immense, the loss of lives is so enormous, not only at the school with these students but across Chamberlain, [so] one of the core goals for me was to ensure we didn’t leave the story with the feeling that Carrie was a monster,” added the showrunner.
Matthew Lillard, involved as the principal of the school, also admitted: “I think the audience will have moments that will thrill them, such as the prom scene or the locker room sequence. You’re drawn to the franchise, but you’re reinterpreted by Flanagan, in a broad and immeasurably expansive way. It’s liberating because you no longer need to worry about what happened before. We’re definitely in a ‘what is’ that is completely new.” Another essential alteration in the miniseries concerns the greater space allotted to secondary characters, thanks to the eight episodes available, which delve into aspects of other students’ lives, such as Chris.
Regarding Stephen King, the author of the novel offered invaluable support to the project’s success, which “takes us to a place very different” from previous adaptations: “I hope fans know that it has been made with nothing but love and respect for what came before, and that we proceeded only with Stephen King’s enthusiastic backing, something that was crucial for me,” the showrunner concluded.
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