Four Iconic Stephen King Adaptations Just Landed on Peacock

Stephen King fans just got a rare streaming twofer: a mini King marathon, all in one place. Peacock has quietly added The Green Mile, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Shining to its January lineup—four of the most acclaimed adaptations ever made from the Master of Horror’s work.

The films, which dropped on Peacock January 1, span two packed decades of King on screen, from the early 1980s through the late 1990s. Together, they represent the side of King that awards voters and English teachers love as much as horror diehards: character-driven prison dramas, psychological breakdowns, and slow-burn dread instead of jump scares.

Four Films, Four Sides of Stephen King

Peacock’s haul covers a remarkable range. The Shining, Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 take on King’s 1977 novel, is the most controversial of the bunch. It’s frequently ranked among the greatest horror movies ever made, with an 84% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, but King himself has called it a “failure” and a “great big beautiful Cadillac with no motor inside,” objecting to how it turns Jack Torrance from a tragic alcoholic into a flat psychopath.

By contrast, King has long praised Rob Reiner’s human, tightly focused work on both Stand By Me and Misery. The latter just celebrated its 35th anniversary as one of his most terrifying, intimate thrillers, a story we revisited in our look at why Misery still hurts. Frank Darabont’s double punch of The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile completes the set, cementing a run that helped turn King adaptations into prestige cinema rather than just pulp horror.

The new Peacock deal is part of a broader reshuffling of King’s screen rights. He’s now the most-adapted living writer—second only to Shakespeare overall—with more than 400 film and TV projects to his name, and over $650 million in adaptation-driven revenue since 2020 alone, according to industry estimates cited by EL PAÍS and Quasa.

Streaming’s King Era Isn’t Slowing Down

Peacock’s King stack arrives as other streamers double down on his worlds. HBO’s Welcome to Derry recently broke records on Max; Netflix is reviving the Castle Rock series; and Starz is gearing up to host the brutal new film of The Long Walk. More than 30 additional King projects are currently in development across film and TV, from fresh takes on Cujo and The Regulators to Mike Flanagan’s long-gestating Dark Tower saga, according to reporting compiled by RogerEbert.com and Parade.

For readers, the Peacock move is more than a convenient movie night. It’s another reminder that King’s fictional universe now lives on a constantly shifting map of licenses and exclusives. Where you stream a classic today—whether it’s Kubrick’s Shining or Darabont’s prison epics—often signals which platform is betting on King next, and which backlist titles might quietly surface alongside them.

There’s no word yet on how long The Green Mile, Misery, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Shining will stay on Peacock. Given how fast rights are cycling, King fans may want to schedule that four-film marathon soon—before this particular Overlook closes its doors again.

Part of our full guide: Stephen King Adaptations in 2026: What Is Filming, What Was Cancelled and What Is Next