All 7 Upcoming Mike Flanagan Movies And Shows

Oct 02, 2026 - 04:09

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All 7 Upcoming Mike Flanagan Movies And Shows

Mike Flanagan at a New York Special Screening Of 'Carrie'

Published Oct 1, 2026, 8:00 PM EDT

Liz Hersey is an Editor and Critic for ScreenRant's TV team, editing, reviewing, writing, and creating content about the iconic shows you love to watch. She began her editing career at ScreenRant in 2019, shortly after joining the site as a Writer that same year.

With a passion for all things books, Liz frequently attends Toronto literary events and conferences, and loves interacting with her book lover community. In addition to being an avid reader of the romance and thriller genres, Liz is a writer of several short stories, and is currently at work on a young adult witch novel.

When she's not working, reading, or writing, Liz can be found seeing movies at her local cinema, attending live jazz events, or curling up on the couch to binge her favorite TV shows.

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There is no bigger name in horror TV right now than Mike Flanagan. The writer-director built a following with inventive and acclaimed genre feature films, such as Oculus (2013), Hush (2016), and Gerald's Game (2017), before absolutely blowing up on the small screen with the Netflix horror miniseries The Haunting of Hill House (2018).

The show's massive popularity was enough to secure him a multi-year television deal with the streaming platform. In total, Flanagan created five horror shows for Netflix: Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020), Midnight Mass (2021), The Midnight Club (2022), and The Fall of the House of Usher (2023). All met with varying levels of acclaim, these series were defined by their emotional and psychological depth rather than excessive gore and cheap jump scares.

Now that his contract with Netflix has ended, Flanagan has signed a similar exclusivity deal with Amazon. Unsurprisingly, Flanagan's first title to be released on Amazon's streaming platform, Prime Video, will be a miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's debut novel, Carrie. A diehard fan of the iconic horror writer, Flanagan also has a couple of other King adaptations at various stages of development, along with other intriguing titles based on known horror IP.

Carrie

October 7, 2026

Stephen King's seminal work about a bullied teenage girl with telekinetic powers is one of the author's most beloved stories. Carrie has been adapted into three feature-length films (and a sequel), with Brian DePalma's original 1976 classic starring Sissy Spacek remaining the gold standard. However, Flanagan's adaptation will be the first time the story of Carrie White has ever been made into a TV series.

Starring Summer H. Howell as the titular protagonist, the Prime Video miniseries brings Carrie into the present day, exploring the horrors of the digital age and cyberbullying. Though Carrie's prom night revenge on her tormentors remains an ultimate "good for her" moment, the previous movies have all treated the character as somewhat of a monster, whereas Flanagan promises to bring his signature empathy to not only Carrie White, but also her tormentors. A fresh take on a familiar story and Flanagan's first Prime Video series, Carrie is one you won't want to miss.

Clayface

October 23, 2026

There couldn't be a better DC Comics character for Flanagan to adapt than Clayface. The story of Matt Hagen, a disfigured movie star turned test subject turned monster made of clay, is one of sheer body horror, darkness, and the heavy themes that play right into Flanagan's wheelhouse. When Flanagan pitched the idea to DC Studios in 2023, it seemed like a no-brainer, and the writer-director's project was greenlit in 2024.

Unfortunately, scheduling conflicts prevented Flanagan from continuing with Clayface, and he was forced to leave the project, calling it "one of the great kind of sadnesses of my career." James Watkins stepped in as director, with a new script by Hossein Amini. Though Flanagan will also be credited as a writer and receive a "story by" credit, he has made it clear that Clayface "very much is not mine" (via Comic Book Movie). The film stars Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, and Max Minghella, and will receive a theatrical release.

The Exorcist: Martyrs

March 27, 2027

Linda Blair as Regan, floating in The Exorcist

One of the projects that took him away from Clayface, Flanagan is writing and directing the seventh film in the Exorcist franchise, The Exorcist: Martyrs. No official plot has been confirmed, though a Comic Book Movie leak reveals, "The film follows a single-mother cop who, 13 years after taking down a notorious satanic serial killer, investigates a new series of murders connected to her past while her 12-year-old son becomes the target of a terrifying demonic force."

The single-mother cop and 12-year-old son will likely be played by confirmed cast members Scarlett Johansson and Hamnet's Noah Jupe, with Diane Lane, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Laurence Fishburne, John Leguizamo, and Hamish Linklater also starring. The Exorcist: Martyrs is a passion project for Flanagan, who said, "I really just saw an opportunity to make the scariest movie I’ve ever made." (via THR) Horror fans will see if he succeeded when The Exorcist: Martyrs, produced by Blumhouse and distributed by Universal Pictures, hits theaters in 2027.

The Dark Tower

In Development

A postapocalyptic saga about a lone gunslinger, The Dark Tower book series ranks among Stephen King's most beloved titles, making the notoriously panned 2017 feature film adaptations one of the most disappointing takes on the author's work. Fortunately, Flanagan acquired the rights to The Dark Tower in 2022.

Though work on the project stalled because of the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, Flanagan gave a promising Dark Tower update in early 2026, revealing that he had finished the scripts for season 1. More importantly, he said that King, who never pulls punches when it comes to adaptations of his work, was "very happy with them." Though Flanagan has cautioned that progress will be slow, The Dark Tower series is expected to be released on Prime Video.

Warhammer 40,000

In Development

A group of ultramarines in Total War Warhammer 40k.

Flanagan may be best known for his horror titles, but the creative has range, which he'll be flexing as a writer on Prime Video's upcoming Warhammer 40,000 series. The show adapts Games Workshop's beloved 1987 British tabletop miniature wargame, with superfan Henry Cavill starring and executive producing.

Though the project is moving along steadily, it's still in the active script development stage, so don't expect it to premiere anytime soon. However, Flanagan confirmed in July 2026 that he's finished the story outlines and is moving on to the scripts. Flanagan also teases that Warhammer 40,000 will be "just a mountain" of a show (via EW). This, combined with the talent behind it, sounds like it will be well worth the wait.

The Mist

In Development

Flanagan has a proven excellent track record with his Stephen King adaptations, but the announcement that he was taking on The Mist raised a few eyebrows. King's 1980 novella about a group of Maine citizens trapped in a supermarket following a sinister fog, The Mist was made into a universally acclaimed feature film directed by Frank Darabont in 2007.

Draft 1 · Bangor, Maine How Well Do You Know Stephen King? “They all float down here.”

🎈ITYou'll float too

🪓ShiningAll work and no play

🔨MiseryI'm your number one fan

🏰Dark TowerThe gunslinger followed

⛓ShawshankGet busy living

OPEN THE BOOK →

King was a high school English teacher in Hampden, Maine, living in a trailer with no phone, when Doubleday paid him a $2,500 advance for his first hardcover novel in 1973. He'd thrown the opening pages in the trash; his wife Tabitha fished them out and told him to keep going. What was the book?

AThe Shining B'Salem's Lot CCarrie DThe Stand

✓ Correct! Carrie. Doubleday paid a $2,500 hardcover advance in 1973, and the paperback rights sold to Signet for $400,000 — King's half ($200,000) let him quit teaching. He always credits Tabitha with saving the manuscript from the trash. Brian De Palma's 1976 film adaptation with Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie earned two Oscar nominations and cemented King as a screen-adaptation goldmine from day one.

✗ Wrong page. The answer is Carrie, published April 5, 1974. 'Salem's Lot came next in 1975, The Shining in 1977, The Stand in 1978. Tabitha King rescued the Carrie opening from the trash, insisted he finish it, and the $400,000 Signet paperback deal that followed — split 50/50 with Doubleday — is what finally let him leave teaching.

In the late 1970s, publishers believed no author could release more than one book a year without saturating the market. So King invented a pseudonym and published five novels under it — including The Long Walk, The Running Man, and Thinner — before a Washington bookstore clerk outed him in 1985. What was the pen name?

AJohn Swithen BRichard Bachman CGordon Lachance DPeter Straub

✓ Correct! Richard Bachman. King took the first name from Richard Stark (Donald Westlake's pseudonym) and the last from Bachman-Turner Overdrive playing on the car stereo. Steve Brown, a Washington D.C. bookstore clerk, cross-checked copyright filings at the Library of Congress and phoned King. Rather than deny it, King wrote a mock obituary declaring Bachman had died of “cancer of the pseudonym.”

✗ Wrong byline. The answer is Richard Bachman — a pseudonym King used for Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man and Thinner between 1977 and 1985. Peter Straub is a real author and King's co-writer on The Talisman and Black House. John Swithen was a one-off alias for a 1972 short story. Gordon Lachance is the narrator character in The Body (filmed as Stand By Me).

King wrote The Shining (1977) after a one-night stay at the then-closing Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, in the fall of 1974. He and Tabitha were the only guests, and a dream about his son being chased down a corridor gave him the entire novel. The fictional haunted hotel is called...

AThe Overlook BThe Bates CThe Dolphin DThe Stanley

✓ Correct! The Overlook Hotel. The Kings checked into room 217 on the last night of the Stanley's 1974 season; Tabitha fell asleep and Stephen dreamed about his three-year-old son Joe being pursued by a fire hose. He woke up with most of the novel in his head. The Stanley has been milking the connection ever since — and in 1997 King adapted his own novel for a TV miniseries filmed there, as a partial corrective to Kubrick's film.

✗ Wrong floor. The answer is The Overlook. The real-world Stanley Hotel in Estes Park inspired it — King stayed in room 217 on the last night of the 1974 season and had the fire-hose nightmare that became the book. The Dolphin is a later King hotel (1408). The Bates Motel is Psycho. The Stanley itself is the real place, not the fictional one, though it's leaned into the association ever since.

In IT (1986), the shape-shifting entity the Losers' Club calls Pennywise the Dancing Clown emerges from the sewers every 27 years to feed on children. The novel — and Andy Muschietti's 2017/2019 films — are set in a fictional Maine town that also shows up in Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, and 11/22/63. Name it.

ACastle Rock BJerusalem's Lot CDerry DChester's Mill

✓ Correct! Derry. Loosely modeled on Bangor, Maine, where King lives. Derry recurs across IT, Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, 11/22/63 and parts of the Dark Tower series. Castle Rock is King's other signature Maine town (The Dead Zone, Cujo, Needful Things). Jerusalem's Lot is from 'Salem's Lot. Chester's Mill is the setting of Under the Dome.

✗ Wrong sewer. The answer is Derry — King's Bangor-coded fictional town, the setting of IT (1986), Insomnia (1994), Dreamcatcher (2001) and 11/22/63 (2011). Castle Rock is a different King town (Cujo, The Dead Zone, Needful Things) and Jerusalem's Lot is where the vampires show up. But Pennywise's home is always Derry.

The 1990 film of Misery, adapted by William Goldman and directed by Rob Reiner, won its lead actress the Best Actress Oscar for playing obsessed “number one fan” Annie Wilkes — still the only acting Oscar ever won for a Stephen King adaptation. Who was it?

AKathy Bates BSissy Spacek CJessica Lange DPiper Laurie

✓ Correct! Kathy Bates — winning Best Actress at the March 1991 Oscars for Misery. Bates later came back for King adaptations Dolores Claiborne (1995) and The Stand (1994 miniseries). It remains the only Academy Award for acting in any screen adaptation of a Stephen King book; Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie both got nominations for Carrie, but neither won.

✗ Wrong fan. The answer is Kathy Bates, who won Best Actress at the 1991 Academy Awards for Misery. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were both nominated for Carrie in 1977 but lost. Jessica Lange has been nominated and won for other films, but not for any King adaptation. Bates's hobbling scene with the sledgehammer is still routinely voted one of the most terrifying moments in horror cinema.

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) — regularly voted the greatest film of all time on IMDb — is adapted from a King novella called “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.” The same 1982 collection also contains the novellas that became Stand By Me and Apt Pupil. What is the collection called?

ASkeleton Crew BDifferent Seasons CNight Shift DFour Past Midnight

✓ Correct! Different Seasons (1982) — four novellas, three of them adapted into major films: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption became The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Body became Stand By Me (1986), and Apt Pupil became the 1998 Bryan Singer film. The fourth, The Breathing Method, is the only one never filmed. Different Seasons is the most-adapted single King book in Hollywood history.

✗ Wrong shelf. The answer is Different Seasons (1982). Night Shift (1978) is an earlier horror-story collection. Skeleton Crew (1985) contains The Mist and The Jaunt. Four Past Midnight (1990) has The Langoliers and Secret Window. But three of the four novellas in Different Seasons — Shawshank, Stand By Me, Apt Pupil — all became celebrated films, making it arguably the single most cinematically influential King book.

King started writing his sprawling magnum opus in 1970 as a college student and finally published the eighth and final volume in 2012. The first line — “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed” — introduces a hero inspired by Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name. What's the gunslinger's name?

AFlagg BRoland Deschain CJake Chambers DTed Brautigan

✓ Correct! Roland Deschain of Gilead, last of his line. The Dark Tower series — eight novels plus The Wind Through the Keyhole — is King's spine work, connecting dozens of his other books (The Stand, Salem's Lot, Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, IT) into one multiverse. Randall Flagg is the series' recurring villain, Jake Chambers is the boy Roland meets, and Ted Brautigan is a Low Men minor character.

✗ Wrong ka-tet. The answer is Roland Deschain. Randall Flagg is the recurring King villain who crosses from The Stand into the Dark Tower (he's the “man in black” fleeing across the desert in the famous opening). Jake Chambers is the young boy Roland picks up in The Gunslinger. Ted Brautigan is a minor Breaker in Hearts in Atlantis. Roland alone is the king of Gilead's son.

King has three children. His daughter Naomi is a Unitarian minister. His younger son Owen is a novelist. His older son is a bestselling horror writer in his own right — author of Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, NOS4A2, and The Fireman — and spent his early career using a pseudonym to hide the family connection. What name does he publish under?

AJoe Hill BPaul Tremblay CJosh Malerman DGrady Hendrix

✓ Correct! Joe Hill — a shortening of his real name, Joseph Hillström King. He used the pseudonym for a decade so his work would be judged on its own merits and not marketed as “son-of.” His 2004 short-story collection 20th Century Ghosts and 2007 debut novel Heart-Shaped Box made his reputation before the family connection became public. He and his father have also co-written a handful of novellas including In the Tall Grass.

✗ Wrong branch. The answer is Joe Hill — pen name of Joseph Hillström King. Paul Tremblay (A Head Full of Ghosts, The Cabin at the End of the World) is a separate contemporary horror novelist. Josh Malerman wrote Bird Box. Grady Hendrix wrote Horrorstor and My Best Friend's Exorcism. Joe Hill hid the King connection for about a decade so his career would stand on its own.

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However, Flanagan promises that his The Mist will be "a different type of adaptation" from Darabont's version (via EW), and given what Flanagan did with Carrie, he's proven that he has something new to say about previously adapted subject matter. Flanagan is currently at work on the script for The Mist, which is due at Warner Bros. around Halloween 2026.

Rot

In Pre-Production Development

Matthew Lillard surrounded by students in Carrie TV series

Flanagan vacates the director's chair to serve as executive producer on the body horror and psychological thriller film Rot, currently in pre-production development. Rot will mark the directorial debut of Alexandra Magistro, an executive at Red Room Pictures, Flanagan's production company.

Not much is known about the plot, other than that it's based on a 2024 Black List script by Geo Bradley and has been described as "Repulsion by way of Cronenberg" (via Deadline). Rot sees Mike Flanagan reteam with Matthew Lillard, whom he collaborated with in The Life of Chuck and Carrie, and also stars Cooper Koch (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story) and Amber Midthunder (Prey).