Stephen King Adaptations in 2026: What Is Filming, What Was Cancelled and What Is Next

No other novelist has been adapted this often, this unevenly, or for this long. Stephen King has been a fixture on screen since Carrie in 1976, and 2026 has turned into one of the busiest years his work has ever had: a Pennywise origin story on HBO, a Carrie series at Amazon, a second season of The Institute filming at MGM+, and a Dark Tower adaptation that has been almost happening for the better part of a decade.

This page keeps track of all of it. What is filming, what has been cancelled, what King is writing next, and where the classics have surfaced on streaming. Every entry links to our full coverage, and we update it as things move.

What is filming right now

It: Welcome to Derry (HBO). Andy Muschietti’s prequel finally gave Pennywise a full origin, and it did something King himself never did on the page: it answered the 40-year Bob Gray question, turning the name King’s entity briefly uses in the 1986 novel into a real person whose tragedy becomes the seed for the clown. King was notably hands-off about the rewrite, according to Muschietti. The series also leans on one of the most brutal lines in It.

Carrie (Amazon). Mike Flanagan is behind a new event series version of King’s 1974 debut, and it has already wrapped filming with Matthew Lillard in a key role. Flanagan has called it one of his favourite projects. Amazon positioned it as a 2026 launch inside a crowded slate of prestige horror and sci-fi.

The Institute season two (MGM+). Production began in February with Ben Barnes, Joe Freeman, Simone Miller, Fionn Laird, Hannah Galway and Arlen So all returning. Season one covered King’s 2019 novel, so season two is an original story set after the book ends. Freeman has warned it will be “torture” for the survivors.

‘Salem’s Lot (series). Patrick Wilson is headlining a new long-form take on King’s vampire novel. Wilson has history here: Tobe Hooper’s 1979 miniseries frightened him as a child.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon (Lionsgate). After years of false starts, the 1999 survival novel is moving ahead as a feature written and directed by JT Mollner.

N. (Marvel Comics). Not screen, but worth knowing about: Marvel is adapting the novella from King’s 2008 collection Just After Sunset into a comic series. Marvel has form with King, having quietly helped launch his adaptations decades ago.

The Dark Tower, and why it keeps not happening

King’s eight-book saga has defeated everyone who has tried it. The 2017 film compressed the series into 95 minutes and satisfied almost nobody. Mike Flanagan now has it, and he has been unusually candid about the scale of the thing.

Flanagan describes the project as an “oil tanker” and his first priority, and says the adaptation is written. He has also been blunt about the 2017 version, telling interviewers “we can’t let it be the final word.” The complication for Constant Readers is Wizard and Glass, the fourth book and the emotional centre of the series, which may not survive intact in the move to screen.

The road here is littered. Frank Darabont, who made The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and The Mist, told IndieWire that he turned the saga down himself, correcting a long-running rumour in the process.

Cancelled, shut down and turned down

King adaptations are not a guaranteed win, and 2026 produced some clear evidence.

• The Outsider was formally cancelled by HBO after a single ten-episode season in 2020, despite strong reviews and a loud fanbase.
• An unnamed King feature was abandoned ten weeks into production.
• The Running Man reached $65.7 million worldwide against a reported $110 million budget. Edgar Wright has explained why his version refuses King’s original ending, in which Ben Richards flies a hijacked plane into a tower block.

Streaming: what we have tracked, and when

Streaming rights on King titles move constantly, so treat this as a record of what we reported and when, rather than a live availability guide. Check the platform before you settle in.

What King is writing

Other Worlds Than These. King has finished the third Talisman book that Peter Straub did not live to write. Straub died in 2022 at 79. King went back through their old correspondence and found an email sketching a direction for the story.

The End Times. A post-apocalyptic novel with Benjamin Percy, serialised in a monthly newspaper. King is consulting, contributing ideas and writing sections himself.

What he is not writing is a sequel to It. King has called Pennywise’s world “too scary, even for me.” Meanwhile The Body, the novella behind Stand By Me, is getting an audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton, who played Gordie in the 1986 film.

The deep cuts

The strangest corners of King’s screen history, which is where a lot of the pleasure is.

• The Dollar Babies. For four decades King let student and first-time filmmakers adapt his short fiction for one dollar. The scheme produced more than 300 shorts before it was retired, and the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures held a screening night in its honour.
• Metallica. A line about the electric chair in The Stand gave Ride the Lightning its title.
• Opera. The Shining reached the opera stage in Tampa.
• Derry, reconsidered. An educator has reframed King’s Derry through a Wabanaki lens.
• The lost X-Men comic. King and George R.R. Martin once shared a Marvel credit.
• Misery at 35. Why it still works, and King’s tribute to Rob Reiner, who directed both Misery and Stand By Me.

Start with the books

Most of the adaptations above are worth meeting on the page first. Our complete chronological guide to every Stephen King book covers the lot, including the Bachman novels and where the Dark Tower saga connects to everything else. If you want a wider net, our best horror books list puts King in company.