Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’ Set for December Premiere at CBS All Access

The series will be a weekly one, with each of the subsequent eight episodes streaming one at a time every Thursday following that premiere. As previously announced, King penned the finale and also wrote a new coda that will take the story beyond where is 800-plus page 1978 tome left things.

“During the two years we spent making ‘The Stand,’ we all felt the responsibility of adapting what may be the most beloved work of one of the world’s most beloved storytellers, but none of us could have imagined that Stephen King’s 40-year-old masterpiece about a global pandemic would come to be so eerily relevant,” said showrunner Benjamin Cavell. “We’re honored to tell this sprawling, epic story, including a new coda that Stephen King has wanted to add for decades. We’re so proud of this show and its attempt to find meaning and hope in the most uncertain of times. We can’t wait to share it with the world.”

“The Stand” is an apocalyptic-world set drama in which a plague has decimated humanity, leaving those left in a literal battle between good and evil. On one side of things is Mother Abagail (played here by Whoopi Goldberg) and a handful of survivors who battle the Dark Man aka Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård).

The new version of “The Stand” also stars James Marsden, Odessa Young, Jovan Adepo, Amber Heard, Owen Teague, Henry Zaga, Brad William Henke, Irene Bedard, Nat Wolff, Eion Bailey, Heather Graham, Katherine McNamara, Fiona Dourif, Natalie Martinez, Hamish Linklater, Daniel Sunjata and Greg Kinnear.

The series is produced by CBS Television Studios. In addition to Cavell, executive producers are Taylor Elmore, Will Weiske, Jimmy Miller, Roy Lee and Richard P. Rubinstein. Josh Boone serves as director and an executive producer for the series premiere and final episode. Jake Braver, Jill Killington, Owen King, Knate Lee, and Stephen Welke serve as producers.

“The Stand” was previously adapted for the small screen in 1994, when it was a four-part limited series starring Gary Sinise, Jamey Sheridan, Molly Ringwald and Ruby Dee that aired on ABC.

Most recently, King’s “The Outsider” novel was turned into a drama series for HBO, but he was not involved in the adaptation process. AT&T Audience Network has a multi-season adaptation of his “Mr. Mercedes” series of novels, while Hulu has “Castle Rock,” which is based on multiple works of his. Other series adaptations currently in development include “The Institute,” “Chapelwaite” (based on “Jerusalem’s Lot”) for Epix, “Joyland” for Freeform, “Lisey’s Story” for Apple TV Plus, “Sleeping Beauties” for AMC and “Revelations” (based on “The Revelations of Becka Paulson”) for the CW.

On the film side, his “The Shining” sequel “Doctor Sleep,” a new version of “Pet Sematary” and the second part of the latest version of “It” were released on the big screen last year, while “In The Tall Grass,” which he co-wrote with his son, author Joe Hill, was released on Netflix. Upcoming adaptations here include “The Dark Half” from MGM, “From a Buick 8” from Renegade Ent., “Mile 81” from Lionsgate, “Revival” from Intrepid Pictures,” “The Talisman” from Amblin Ent. and new versions of “Salem’s Lot” (New Line Cinema) and “The Tommyknockers” (Universal Studios).