What Stephen King Thinks About Mike Flanagan's Carrie Prime Video Series
Stephen King has reached a verdict on Prime Video's "Carrie," and he's full of praise for Mike Flanagan. The filmmaker's adaptation of King's 1974 horror novel takes a modern approach to the story of super-powered high school outcast Carrie White (Summer H. Howell). Presented as an eight-episode limited series, "Carrie" makes some changes to the book while resurrecting iconic moments, such as the blood-soaked prom scene.
Amid rave reviews from critics and general audiences, King has given Flanagan's "Carrie" his emphatic stamp of approval. On October 9, 2026, King posted a video on X detailing his thoughts on the first television series adaptation of "Carrie" and encouraging others to stream the show. "[Flanagan] is the best adapter of my work," King declared. "And if you like this and enough people watch it, we might be doing something else that's really special. But I can't talk about it."
Of course, Brian De Palma's famous 1976 film often comes to mind when discussing "Carrie," and King also loved that adaptation. His latest comments on Flanagan's retelling of "Carrie" therefore amount to especially high praise.
How Stephen King was involved in Prime Video's Carrie
As one might expect, adapting a 1970s story to the present day required significant creative decisions from Mike Flanagan, as did expanding the narrative across eight episodes. Flanagan's "Carrie" makes several changes to the source material, including the depiction of the main character's inner struggle and relationship with her mother. Stephen King was closely involved in determining how the story would expand beyond his original novel.
Having worked on film adaptations of "Gerald's Game," "Doctor Sleep," and "The Life of Chuck" before "Carrie," Flanagan has established a strong working dynamic with King. "There's no world where I'm doing anything like that without talking to Steve about it first," Flanagan said in an interview with Polygon. "He got to see all of that before I agreed to do the show, and was very intimately involved in deciding how we wanted to expand that universe."
King also teased another potential project in his X video, although he offered no further details. Flanagan has owned the rights to King's "The Dark Tower" series since 2022, though there is no confirmation that this is the project King was referring to.