By the time hell year 2020 wraps up, are audiences really going to want to watch a story about the world grappling with a killer flu? CBS is sure hoping they will, as they’ve just confirmed the release date for their new adaptation of The Stand. This post-apocalyptic tale is regarded as one of Stephen King’s best novels and shows society descending into anarchy after a flu pandemic kills off 99% of the world’s population.
Today, CBS announced that it’ll premiere on December 17th, 2020. The series will be ten episodes long and as is common now, I think they’ll drop the first two or three at once, which will give us something to get our teeth into on launch day, with the rest following afterwards on a weekly basis.
Right now, The Stand is a very promising package. The cast includes Whoopi Goldberg, James Marsden Alexander Skarsgård, Odessa Young, Greg Kinnear, Heather Graham, Amber Heard, Jovan Adepo and Marilyn Manson (though there are many, many more coming over its expansive narrative), and is written by The Fault in our Stars and The New Mutants director Josh Boone and Ben Cavell (who’s the showrunner).
One very interesting factor is that Stephen King himself is penning the final episode, which will feature a new ending to the tale. The Stand‘s similarities to the COVID-19 pandemic haven’t escaped the horror master, either, who said in an interview that:
“When you hear reports that 100,000 or 240,000 people are going to die, you’ve got to take notice, and it is going to be bad. It’s bad right now. It’s brought the economy to a complete stop. In a lot of ways, I mean, you see the pictures of Times Square or London, and you say, ‘It really is like The Stand.’”
So, c’mon Steve, why not write us in a new happy ending to The Stand for this miniseries? We certainly need one.
Tell us, though, will you be tuning in for this new adaptation? Or is a story about a killer flu not something that interests you right now? As always, let us know down below.