Mild spoilers below for the first two episodes of The Institute, so be warned if you haven't yet stremed it on MGM+.
When the 2019 bestseller novel The Institute joined the list of upcoming Stephen King adaptations, readers like myself assumed the show would need a small-screen home that could buck all kinds of censorship expectations, given how much of the book's plot revolves around manipulating and torturing children. What makes for gripping storytelling on the page can feel vastly different with sight and sound included, and nobody needs that on the 2025 TV schedule.
So there was much rejoicing when the novel-to-screen adaptation's co-developers revealed that the live-action series would be aging up the pre-teen Luke and other kids who are scooped up and unwittingly dumped into the titular Institute. When I had the chance to talk to Benjamin Cavell and Jack Bender ahead of Season 1, I got their thoughts on the advantages of shifting
Creator Benjamin Cavell Talks Making The Necessary Age Changes And Earning Stephen King's Approval
I wondered how quickly the characters' ages were considered when the project was still in development, and Cavell confirmed that it was an early concern, saying:
No, listen, it was something we talked about from the beginning. Aging him up a little bit was something that we were considering, because we never wanted the the show to feel sadistic. You know, sort of seeing little kids brutalized, versus teenagers, feels different. Having them be teenagers, I think, allowed us to play a little more of the sort of World War II POW 'Great Escape' movie, as opposed to just seeing kids brutalized.
You know how nobody ever went all in on filming that gobsmacking "climax" of Stephen King's IT novel? The Institute's methods for measuring PK and PT abilities aren't nearly as salacious, but still wouldn't be fun to watch with regularity on a weekly basis. It'd be like Jacob Tremblay's beyond-unsettling scenes in Mike Flanagan's Doctor Sleep, only over and over again. This King guy really knows how to make misery feel palpable, amirite?
Teen actor Joe Freeman (son of Martin Freeman and Amanda Abbington) landed the role as the older version of Luke, and delivers quite the solid performance, making it all the more surprising to know that it's his first on-screen job. Cavell pointed out that finding the actor was key to figuring out what would work best, saying:
The other piece of it, of course, was when I read the book for the first time, I called Jack, and I said, 'This is incredible, but where are we going to find a kid who can do all the stuff that we'll be asking for from Luke?' And so when we found Joe Freeman, it was so clear... Just watching his first audition, it was so clear that he was the person we'd been looking for, praying for, hoping for, dreaming of.
Finding the right actor allowed Cavell & Co. to figure out the proper age range, and the (then) 18-year-old Joe Freeman's physical appearance was such that Luke wouldn't need to be made that much older for it all to work. Cavel continued:
Then it felt like, 'Okay, we know this is right, so let's sort of construct everything to fit with this. He plays a little bit older, certainly a little bit older than 12, which is what Luke is in the book, and it felt like, 'Okay, well, if he's playing 14, let's make everybody else a little bit older just to fit with that.' But I don't know. I think it's a change that really works. King loved it. Yeah, King loves Joe.
I can't imagine that Stephen King would want to watch a TV show playing out the horrifying imagery that he already had going on his mental nickelodeon while writing the book. So it's comforting to know that he was supportive of the change, and also that he dug Freeman's take on the book's hero.
Director And EP Jack Bender Explains Why Making Luke & Co. Older Gives The Story More Real-World Relevance
Aging up some of the characters allowed Mary-Louise Parker's antagonist Mrs. Sigsby to keep the building's Front Half stocked with cigarettes, which was downright baffling to see in a 2025 TV show. But there were other ideas behind changing up the characters' ages for TV, with Jack Bender telling me he felt like it gives younger viewers more of a relatable in, with the more-or-less imprisoned teens reflecting progressive younger generations. In his words:
I also think it allows a younger audience to enter into this show in a way, and relate to this show in a way. When I first read the galleys, one of the inspirations, or one of the things that struck me, was after the Parkland School massacre, the way those kids, the kids who survived that tragedy, became this political force that stood up against . . . everybody else. They chose to say, 'You all screwed up. We know how to fix this. Get out of our way.' And I thought, 'You're damn right. That's the future. You're the future. And us adults have screwed up.' I'll say we still are.
Jack Bender continued, saying that he and Benjamin Cavell both agreed that empowering the youth was an important theme to go along with the narrative, and also pointed out that beneath the sinister veneer of Mrs. Sigsby and her minions, Robert Joy's Hendricks, and Julian Richards' Stackhouse, The Institute is kind of like a high school drama on bad acid. As he put it:
So that, to me, was such a powerful touchstone. And when Ben and I first came together on it, it was like 'Children shall inherit the earth, but first they have to save themselves.' And the older kids allowed us to do that, and also create a show...it's the weirdest high school show you've ever seen. I mean, there's no lockers, there's no kids, they're not going dating, and yet they're high school kids. You know what I mean? Which is bizarre. So I think it opened all those doors and made it a better show, even. And Stephen agrees, as Ben said.
Would I watch a twisted version of Muppet Babies where Nanny is strapping electrodes to the kids and giving them all "shots for dots?" I mean, probably, especially if nothing else is on. But what I'm saying is, it's way better to see adult Muppets get tortured than...wait, no that's not right. The real point is that they made the right move behind the scenes, and viewers are all the better for it.
The Institute's new episodes are set to debut on MGM+ every Sunday. While waiting to see what happens to Luke next, check out some other upcoming horror TV shows.
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