Stephen King's The Stand to Become 10-Hour Miniseries for CBS Streaming?

With the success of Stephen King’sIT, the author is enjoying quite the renaissance, which has many wondering what may be happening with the long-awaited adaptation of his 1978 classicThe Stand. Now we may have our answer. A new report on director Josh Boone’sThe New Mutants, reveals that the filmmaker, who has been attached to write and directThe Standsince 2014, is now shaping this project to become a 10-hour limited series on theCBS All Access streaming service. There had been talk that there will be a TV series that leads into the theatrical movie before, but now it seems the project is being entirely adapted for the small screen.

Shortly afterwriter-director Josh Boonewas attached toThe Standin 2014, the filmmaker stated that he planned on turning the 862-page novel into a three-hour, R-rated adaptation, while also claiming that every role will be filled by an A-list actor. There were subsequent reports that the filmmaker was aiming to spread the adaptation out over multiple movies, with a report from November 2014 claiming that this adaptation would span four movies. However, we reported in June 2015 that there will first be an eight-hour mini-series on Showtime that will lead directly into the movie.

The last we heard aboutThe Standwas fromStephen Kinglast September, who said that, “there’s talk about doing The Stand as an extended TV series, possibly for Showtime or CBS All Access.” It seems that the filmmakers have decided on the latter, although nothing has been confirmed by CBS All Access yet. Still, it seems that they are completely forgoing any sort of theatrical release forThe Stand, moving the project to the streaming service. While this would certainly help make the series a more faithful adaptation, with this book spread out over 10 hours of programming, it may be disappointing for fans looking forward to seeing this story unfold on the big screen.

There had been talk way back in 2014 thatMatthew McConaugheyhad been set to star as the villainous Randall Flagg, which was before he would ultimately play that same character inThe Dark Towermovie adaptation.The Standmarked the first appearance of Randall Flagg in Stephen King’s books, and he would later surface inThe Eyes of the Dragon,The Dark Towernovels,Hearts in AtlantisandGwendy’s Button Box. While it’s possible that McConaughey still could play Flagg, there has not been any confirmation, especially since it’s uncertain what will happen with the plannedDark Towersequels and its own companion TV series.

Regardless, even if this is being turned into a CBS All Access TV series, we may not be getting it anytime soon. Josh Boone is currently working onThe New Mutants, which was initially supposed to hit theaters on June 21, 2025, before being pushed to July 03, 2025 and then most recently to June 18, 2025, with the fillmmaker overseeing what are expected to bemassive reshoots. You can head over toThe Tracking Boardfor their full report onThe New Mutants, which includes this brief tidbit aboutThe Standadaptation.