The last couple of years have been great for fans of Stephen King, with projects based on his works hitting the large and small screens alike. Now, fans have something new and incredibly exciting to look forward to thanks to the TV adaptation of one of King's most famous works: The Stand. Julie McNamara, Vice President of Original Content for CBS All Access, shared the exciting news:
I am pleased to announce our next series order: Stephen King's The Stand. With over 400 million books sold around the world, Stephen King is one of our greatest living authors, and The Stand is widely seen as the jewel in the crown of his work. This epic saga is perfectly suited to a premium streaming execution and is being shepherded by executive producers Josh Boone, the writer/director of Fault In Our Stars and X-Men: New Mutants, and Ben Cavell from Justified and Homeland. The Stand will be a 10-episode event in 2020.
A TV show based on The Stand with Josh Boone attached has been in the works for a long time, and rumors of the show finally happening have abounded, but Julie McNamara's announcement at TCA prove that the show is really on the way, and it won't be just a quick miniseries.
A ten-episode run means that the show could cover a lot of the book's contents and deliver a lot more scares than could be possible with a movie or a shorter run. CBS All Access could be the perfect platform for the project.
When a Stand TV show with Josh Boone attached was first announced way back in the summer of 2015, Warner Bros. and CBS were in talks with Showtime to deliver the adaptation to premium cable with a total of eight episodes. Showtime is no longer the release platform and more than three years have passed since that initial news, but the Josh Boone Stand series is finally happening, and not too terribly long in the future.
Would fans be happier if the news was that The Stand would hit CBS All Access this year? Sure. But an official series order means that the show is definitely happening, and that certainty could make the wait for 2020 easier. For now, prospective viewers can turn to the novel to imagine what could be in store. Despite coming from Josh Boone, I'm guessing there won't be too many similarities to The Fault In Our Stars!
In The Stand, Stephen King paints the picture of an apocalyptic world that has been decimated by a plague that left relatively few survivors, and a struggle between good and evil will arise out of the wasteland that was once a thriving civilization. The survivors who must fight for good are a mixed bag who probably never would have crossed paths, with the only apparent thing they have in common being their immunity to the plague that killed so many.
Then, of course, there is the Dark Man, a.k.a. Randall Flag, who appeared in 2017's The Dark Tower movie. There's much more to fear than just sickness in The Stand. Hopefully the TV adaptation will take advantage of its ten-episode order to tell the story with as many twists, turns, and frights as possible. The official series order certainly soothes the sting of the movie adaptation that was never made, despite rumblings not so long ago.
For now, CBS All Access will remain the home of Star Trek: Discovery, among other series. In addition to Discovery, more Trek series are in the works, including a Picard-centric project with Patrick Stewart reprising his iconic role. For some more viewing options, check out our midseason TV premiere schedule.
