Stephen King thought another 'Carrie' was 'a dumb idea.' This is what convinced him.

• Stephen King fans are in luck: It's a big year for screen adaptations of his novels.
• "The Long Walk" and "The Running Man" emerged from Stephen King's earlier writing, but the themes are still timely.
• "It: Welcome to Derry" is Stephen King's newest TV show but Constant Readers have a new "Carrie" series to get psyched for, too.

Stephen King didn’t just haunt bookshelves in 2025. Chances are, you might have run into his stories in movie theaters or on TV, too.

Ever since Brian De Palma’s 1976 movie version of King’s first published novel “Carrie,” there’s been a steady stream of adaptations of the author's books and short stories. The master of horror says it was “serendipity” that this year was so rich, with films including “The Monkey,” “The Life of Chuck,” “The Long Walk” and “The Running Man,” plus TV series “The Institute” and “It: Welcome to Derry.”

"I just had a bumper crop," King says.

Some have King waxing nostalgic: With the original 1979 "Long Walk" book, which he started writing in 1966 while a freshman at the University of Maine, King recalls, "there was this girl that I was crazy about, and I gave it to her by chapters. I thought maybe that would get me laid, but it didn't." Others find him impressed by the filmmakers who adapt his prose. Making "The Monkey," director Osgood Perkins "just did his own thing and he created this kind of horror comedy, which wasn't like the story at all, but it really worked,” King says.

The legendary writer talks about his works that got new screen life in 2025 and teases what’s to come:

‘It’ prequel ‘Welcome to Derry’ dives deep into a Maine town

As in the two “It” movies, director Andy Muschietti pits another group of youngsters vs. evil clown Pennywise in the HBO Max prequel series “Welcome to Derry” (first episode streaming now, new installments on Sundays). The show is based on interstitial chapters King wrote for his epic novel, and each season will focus on violent events that descend upon Derry every 27 years – for example, the first “It” movie took place in 1989 and the first “Derry” season is 1962.

To tell the cursed history of Derry in those interludes, “I used a lot of Bangor, where we were living at the time,” King says. For example, the first season discusses a club for Black soldiers that burned down in Derry, and it was inspired by an incident in Bangor. “There were gangsters that came to town and got shot up," King says. "It was a hard town. I just used everything that I could and decided I was going to write a really long book and let it all hang out.”

‘The Running Man’ spun out from a terrifying game show concept

Like "The Long Walk," "The Running Man" (in theaters Nov. 14) is a dystopian thriller from the early era in King’s career where he used the pseudonym Richard Bachman. The idea for that 1982 novel – which became a 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film and the upcoming Glen Powell movie – simply came to King when he wondered, “Wouldn't it be cool if there was a game show where they actually killed people?”

He had fun hatching others mentioned in the book, from “How Hot Can You Take It” to “Swim the Crocodiles,” but “it never struck me that we would have the world that we're living in now, where you actually see game shows approach that kind of thing,” King adds, pointing out "The Biggest Loser.” “They're kind of sadistic, (though) we're not to the point of ‘Squid Game’ yet.”

Why Stephen King changed his mind about ‘Carrie' as a TV series

One of King’s most frequent collaborators is director Mike Flanagan, who very much sticks to the writer’s script in tone and theme. “He has that sort of new wave director's ability, and it's fused with this real reader's sensibility. That is, he can read things and translate them to film because it's like he has a foot in both worlds,” King says of Flanagan, who adapted "Doctor Sleep" and "The Life of Chuck" for the big screen.

Flanagan is working on two shows: an adaptation of King’s fantasy “Dark Tower” epic and a new take on “Carrie” that Flanagan just finished filming. (The latter is expected to stream on Prime Video next year.) King says Flanagan’s scripts for “Dark Tower” are “terrific” but acknowledges that he initially thought another “Carrie,” which centers on a shy teenager who faces bullies and emerging telekinetic powers, “was frankly a dumb idea.” De Palma’s movie “is pretty good as it is.”

But King was won over by the modern take: Flanagan told USA TODAY in June that the show is a “relevant and vital new story” set at a time where kids hiding from school shooters has been normalized and bullying has taken on a new dimension. And King teases this “interesting” spin on the “Carrie” mythos captures “a lot of the vibe of school now with this whole cellphone culture and social media. It's really good.”

But for Stephen King, life is about more than horror

While filmmakers continually circle his work – adaptations of novels such as “Billy Summers” and “Fairy Tale” are also in development – King is working to “clear my desk” of a couple of novels, the third “Talisman” book and one last case for literary detective Holly Gibney. He’s also planning on a break “while I'm still healthy” and is catching up on his favorite shows like “Task” and “Mayor of Kingstown.”

“I love books and TV and movies. I enjoy those things, but I also like my dog,” he says. “I like to play guitar a little bit. I've had a busy, interesting, fruitful life.”