Carrie Boss Mike Flanagan On Why He Wanted To Update The Harrowing Stephen King Classic

Mike Flanagan is sending Carrie White back to prom. 

The writer-director's eight-episode adaptation of Stephen King's "Carrie" hits Prime Video Wednesday, October 7 (all episodes drop as a binge; see first photos here), only this time, the story's 2026 update expands on the horrors of bullying and the toxic effects social media has on today's youth. 

Carrie's story is one some viewers may already know, thanks to Brian De Palma's 1976 film starring the Oscar-nominated Sissy Spacek. After the 1999 sequel "The Rage: Carrie 2," a 2002 TV-movie followed, before another remake hit theaters in 2013, that time starring Chloë Grace Moretz in the titular role. Flanagan's version (which is led by Summer H. Howell and Samantha Sloyan) is the first TV series to take a stab at Carrie's heart-wrenching tale. Although the story's been told and retold before — "iconically" as Flanagan puts it — the writer/director still felt there was room for a new interpretation of King's classic source material.

"My first reaction was I think everybody's, which is: Why do 'Carrie'?" Flanagan tells TVLine. "But as I was contemplating the show, my oldest son was about to start high school and I was thinking about the world he was stepping into, how completely different it was from the high school I went to in the '90s. And as I started thinking more about high school violence and active shooter drills, and social media and how normalized cruelty is, it suddenly started to look like this was a chance to do the kind of adaptation I got to do with 'Hill House' and 'Bly' and 'Usher' — take something apart, and build something new out of familiar pieces — and that became really exciting." 

When Mike Flanagan's version begins (watch the trailer here), Carrie's dad is still in the picture, and Carrie and her mom have been hidden away from the world for most of the young girl's life. Although religion still plays a huge part in the women's identities, Samantha Sloyan's Margaret is also portrayed as a victim of their peculiar and abusive family dynamic. And those aren't the only major differences that await viewers when the series kicks off. 

Once they're discovered, Carrie is eventually forced by authorities to enroll in high school, and that's where the real trauma begins. Yes, there's that infamous shower scene and a bloody, terrifying prom toward the end that goes haywire, but those legendary sequences are given fresh spins that make Carrie's plight even more difficult as she attempts to survive the halls of high school. Enter Chris Hargensen (played by Alison Thornton from "Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce"), whose stereotypical bully is given loads of depth and humanity in this new update. Siena Agudong ("Resident Evil") plays Sue Snell, Chris' friend who starts to feel guilty for taking part in Carrie's bullying, later becoming one of the girl's biggest supporters. The other new wrinkles to the story — and there are lots — both help and hurt Carrie as the story unfolds, but we wouldn't dare spoil all the fun. 

If you're still not sold on why another "Carrie" exists, it's worth noting that Uncle Stevie himself is on board and excited about one of his earliest characters getting new life.

"Stephen King was really into the idea after he saw what we were looking at," says Flanagan. "And I'm really glad because it turned out to be one of my favorite projects."

Will you be watching "Carrie" when it drops on Prime Video? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!