‘Carrie’s Mike Flanagan Confirms Why He Made a Major Change From Stephen King’s Book

Outubro 7, 2026 lojamais44@gmail.com

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Carrie.

Summary

In an interview with Collider, Mike Flanagan teases who could get a bigger role in a potential Carrie Season 2.
The creator discusses the biggest changes from Stephen King’s book and the Easter eggs to look out for.
Flanagan also breaks down the major challenges of shooting that enormous prom scene.

Mike Flanagan is one of the most prolific and revered creatives in the horror space. His most beloved films include The Shining sequel, Doctor Sleep, Absentia, and The Life of Chuck, though he’s best known for his Netflix series, such as The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, which both received nominations at the Writers Guild of America Awards. He’s now taking his talents to Prime Video with his newest project: a Carrie series, based on the novel by Stephen King.

Carrie, of course, follows a sheltered young girl who — when pushed to the limit by her intense mom and cruel peers — unearths telekinetic powers that put the whole town in danger. Adapting the story for the modern era and tackling crucial issues that plague high schoolers today such as online bullying and school shootings, Flanagan puts a smart, fresh twist on the famous tale. Enlisting both frequent collaborators like Samantha Sloyan as Carrie’s overprotective, highly religious mother and Rahul Kohli as a teacher at the school, alongside new faces like Summer H. Howell in the titular role and Alison Thornton as queen bee Chris Hargensen, he has assembled a stellar ensemble cast to bring his scripts to life.

Collider got the chance to talk to Flanagan about the show, which arrives just in time for spooky season. During the conversation, Flanagan hints at some of the show’s biggest Easter eggs, explains why he made a few key changes to the source material, discusses the most difficult part of taking on that monster prom scene, teases who could have a bigger role in Season 2, and more.

Mike Flanagan Teases a Bigger Role for Kate Siegel in a Potential ‘Carrie’ Season 2

“If there’s more to tell, it would be really at the top of my list.”

COLLIDER: I love all of the voiceover openings talking about things like telekinesis and hysterical strength. Can you talk about the decision to include that grounded historical context that way?

MIKE FLANAGAN: A lot of it comes right out of the book. Stephen King talks about Carrie’s place in this longer history of gifted women and the “TK gene,” as he calls it. It was really exciting to say, “How does this trace back through modern history and stories we think we know?” The mother who lifts the car off of her son — it’s a story everybody knows. And they say, “Well, what if that’s really just an expression of the same thing that Carrie’s been dealing with?” So the book points at it, but none of the other adaptations have had the real estate, I think, to dig in. That was an amazing opportunity for us. It was irresistible.

Those voiceovers are, of course, done by the incredible Kate Siegel. I’m obsessed with her character. I know we’re jumping ahead a little, but when — not if — we get a Season 2, do you anticipate her having more of a central role?

FLANAGAN: I will say, my mission was just to survive Season 1 and to get to the end in a way that would make people feel like we really honored this arc in this story. I’ve worked in TV long enough to know you never try to write checks you don’t know you can cash. That said, you don’t use Kate Siegel for V.O. If you’re gonna use Kate, it’s with a lot of ambition, and that character, I think, is so interesting. It was so much fun to watch her and Sam work together that way — it was so exciting. Who knows? But if there’s more to tell, it would be really at the top of my list to try to dig more into Adelaide and see what else Kate can do with it. It’d be really fun.

Mike Flanagan Reveals Why He Made a Major Change to Margaret White

“We had the chance to do something I thought was pretty profound about parenthood.”

Samantha Sloyan as Margaret White sitting in a school gymnasium in Carrie.

I thought the reveal that Margaret had powers was so fascinating and loaded. What went into that decision, and how do you think that ultimately influences her as a character?

FLANAGAN: We talked a lot about the genetic component of this. It’s, again, in the book — I think Steve says it skips generations, and there’s a hint that Carrie’s grandmother might have been gifted. But we talked about how genes express themselves, and we also talked about the reality of parents and teenagers today, especially — and parents in general — that, when there’s friction, sometimes it’s because a parent sees something in their kid that they have in themselves that they haven’t learned how to deal with, and that kind of creates the fear. That was something that I thought was really important to put to the foreground.

Margaret, her abilities aren’t anything like Carrie’s, either because she suppressed them so intensely or because they were never going to manifest as fully as Carrie’s did. Either way, it meant we had the chance to do something I thought was pretty profound about parenthood and to understand that these two women, who have been loving each other but at odds throughout this whole story and who have ended on such a tragic note, had more in common than either of them ever knew. The story is a tragedy, and that just hit us all in the heart, I think.

Mike Flanagan Breaks Down All the ‘Carrie’ Easter Eggs to Look Out For

“There are some very subtle hints about future projects in there, too.”

Matthew Lillard in the 'Carrie' series. — Matthew Lillard in the ‘Carrie’ series.

I loved spotting the movie theater marquee advertising the Brian De Palma retrospective. Are there any other Easter eggs that fans should look out for as they watch?

FLANAGAN: Oh, sure — there are a lot of Easter eggs in this. There are a lot of Stephen King Easter eggs going all the way back to the very first scene. Keep a close eye on the construction site signage, King fans. I always try to hide some things in there. There are some Stephen King references, and some De Palma references for sure. And there are some very subtle hints about future projects in there, too.

Speaking of Stephen King, he has called your interpretation of his source material “brilliant” with this show. I want to flip that question a bit and ask if there’s a moment that one of your actors had an interpretation of your script that surprised you but that you thought was really brilliant.

FLANAGAN: Oh my god, there were so many on this show. This is honestly one of the greatest ensembles I’ve ever worked with. This cast is so remarkable. But I’ll tell you, there’s a scene in Episode 8 between Samantha Sloyan and Summer H. Howell in the prayer closet after the prom. That scene, I loved it on the page — I loved it when we wrote it — but seeing Samantha Sloyan perform it the way she does on camera, I don’t think any of us were ready for the heartbreak of it. It’s a scene that initially could simply be horrific, and the way it’s rendered, it is devastating. That, I think, knocked us out. And it’s both of them. It starts in the bathtub before that with both of those actresses, and their performances are so good.

Throughout, I was amazed at Alison Thornton’s interpretation of Chris Hargensen, a character that is very easy to write off as a monster but in her hands is so much more complicated. And then Summer Howell. I mean, in every scene, Summer was always elevating what was on the page into something that was hers and something that we couldn’t have ever predicted. It was just magic to watch her do that every day.

Mike Flanagan Viewed ‘Carrie’s Epic Prom Finale Like a Movie

“It was a crazy experience, that whole thing.”

Carrie White (Summer H. Howell) at prom in 'Carrie' — Carrie White (Summer H. Howell) at prom in ‘Carrie’

I feel like Episodes 7 and 8 flow together so seamlessly. I was so struck by the fact that, at the end of Episode 7, you fade to black and just let the audience hear screams. I’d love to hear more about that choice because it gave me literal chills when I watched it.

FLANAGAN: I did that in Midnight Mass, too. It’s a trick I’ve come to fall in love with. I looked at Episodes 7 and 8 like a movie. It felt to me like one feature film, but we had to break between them. I really wanted us to feel the horror of the prom, but knowing that we had to cut the credits, I thought it would just be so abrupt if we were off of this image of her and then we see words — it was way more impactful, I thought, to hear what we were going to see, to hear what we were in for, and to let that sink in. There’s a finality to it that I find kind of horrifying. I’m glad that impacted you. That’s one of my favorite parts of that bridge between, “How do you take a movie and break it in the middle?” And that was the only answer I could come up with.

You found the perfect way. I mean, that prom scene is such a feat. There’s fire, there’s water, there’s stunts. I know you’ve called that pretty much the most challenging thing you’ve ever done. I’m sure it took immense planning. Was there something that came up during the shoot that presented itself to be a real challenge that you couldn’t really anticipate or plan for?

FLANAGAN: Oh my god, yeah. With fire, water, and the practical special effects…I mean, the tiniest things. You’d laugh at the things that gave us a hard time. Popping balloons on cue. We, at one point, needed to throw a table through the air to hit a water main to burst it, and you’ll notice in the show that doesn’t happen. We never figured it out. That many people in that space where you’ve got sternos exploding and tables, chairs, and bleachers flying through the air — people on wirework — it was insane. It was absolutely insane. It took us 10 days to shoot.

The biggest thing that happened while we were shooting that no one could anticipate was that a whole bunch of us got COVID. There was a COVID outbreak at the prom, so in the middle of having to shoot this whole thing and staying up till 4 in the morning and the fire, water, and everything else, everybody was in their PPE and breathing through the N95 masks, trying not to infect each other because we couldn’t shut down. It was a crazy experience, that whole thing.

Carrie is now streaming on Prime Video.

Release Date: 2026 – 2026-00-00
Network: Prime Video
Writers: Mike Flanagan, Alexandra Magistro, Justina Ireland, Jamie Flanagan, Elan Gale, Rebecca Klingel, Elizabeth Padden, Dani Parker