The story of Carrie White might be far from over: to suggest as much is that very final twist, planned from the outset according to Mike Flanagan and which would also have earned the approval of Stephen King. His is, after all, the novel that inspired the TV adaptation streaming on Prime Video. Carrie, portrayed by Summer H. Howell, was presented as a bona fide miniseries drawing its strength from King’s novel, but that ending could have just opened the door to a second season? The one who can tell more is the creator, Mike Flanagan.
Carrie 2 si farà? Mike Flanagan rivela i retroscena su quel finale previsto sin dall’inizio e come spiana la strada ad una nuova stagione
Carrie White is a teenager who has always lived in an isolated home by her parents’ choice. She has never attended any school (public or private), has had little interaction with other human beings (aside from the neighbor), and is often punished when she makes mistakes, shut in the closet to pray. When Carrie’s father dies suddenly under suspicious circumstances, her life changes. She is forced to attend school, and her mother must work in order to keep the family together, and she soon realizes that school can be, in some respects, a real hell for a girl her age.
Over the course of the episodes, Carrie begins to manifest particular abilities that she tries to control, but the finale episode hinted at early in the season offered the protagonist a second chance, diverging from what happens in the novel. Note: the following will refer to what happened in Carrie on Prime Video, so we advise you to continue only if you’re up to date with your programming.
Unlike Stephen King’s novel, Carrie does not die in the final episode; instead, she escapes with the help of Emaline. According to Mike Flanagan, that ending was conceived from the very beginning and it is a twist that the author himself appreciated: “One of the things that excited Stephen King the most,” he confessed to People. “We wanted to focus as much as possible on reaching the last scene of this season, in case it was a single-season series and we wouldn’t be able to return to this world. We wanted to finalize the narrative arc and conclude the story in the right way. But I was very aware of the great potential for further development of the plot and we also wanted to leave room for this.”
Mike Flanagan would not say no to more episodes of Carrie and would be open to the possibility of a second season: “In an ideal scenario, I think it would be really fantastic to continue the story. I’ve never had the opportunity to do it. And we have certainly tried to plant the right seeds so that it could happen.” The decision rests with Prime Video, but in the meantime the showrunner says he is satisfied with what has been shown: “Regardless of whether the series gets renewed for a second season, our priority was truly to make it as rewarding as possible at the moment the screen fades to black, but also to allow Carrie White to go out into the world, whether or not we’re allowed to follow her. We believed she had earned it.”
The presence of Emaline in Carrie explained by the showrunner
Another difference between the novel and the miniseries concerns the character Emaline, played by Thalia Dudek, a figure who from the outset appears as a moral compass for Carrie, trying to help her understand how to behave around people. Emaline’s presence at the senior prom then sparked a range of questions: is Carrie the only one responsible for that tragedy, or is there more that we don’t know? Once again, the showrunner weighed in: “In the book, Stephen King highlights the wider world surrounding Carrie, the fact that she belongs to a much larger group of talented women. Simply, in none of the other adaptations does anyone live long enough to realize it. One crucial aspect for me was that we wouldn’t leave the story with the impression that Carrie was a monster.”
As for Emaline, he added: “Her presence raised a whole set of fascinating questions about awareness and what exactly happened at the prom: who else might have been there, what could have been her contribution? One of the things I’ve come to believe is that most tragedies in this world have more than one author, and that was an aspect the series wanted to focus on,” he concluded, leaving the door open to various interpretations. But what will happen to Carrie? Will she have a second season?
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