Mike Flanagan’s upcoming Carrie series was always going to need more story. Namely because Stephen King’s debut novel is short, the prom has already been burned into pop culture by Brian De Palma’s 1976 movie, and Prime Video ordered eight episodes rather than another two-hour page-to-screen adaptation. Flanagan has earned plenty of trust with King material, but the first details about how he plans to expand Carrie White’s world have given me pause. Honestly, it just sounds too much like X-Men.
In Entertainment Weekly’s first look at Carrie, Flanagan explained that the series will explore the science behind telekinesis and connect its title character to other women with similar abilities. If you've read all of Stephen Kings books like I have, you know the material has roots in his novel, but the showrunner’s description sounds much closer to the foundation of a new superhero movie mythology than the intimate horror story I associate with Carrie. Flanagan explained:
Stephen King also talks about the ‘TK gene’ [for telekinesis] and the science behind Carrie’s abilities… Something that the De Palma adaptation ignored was Carrie’s place in the larger universe, that she’s part of a sorority of very gifted women and just doesn’t know it. The book absolutely points at that, but that was something we could pick up and run with.
There is something compelling buried in that idea. King’s novel includes reports, testimony and scientific speculation surrounding what happened in Chamberlain, Maine. Previous movies largely discarded that material to stay close to Carrie, Margaret White and the approaching disaster at prom. A streaming series has room to recover pieces that never fit comfortably into those films.
Still, words such as “gene,” “larger universe” and “gifted women” set off my superhero alarm. Put them together, and the upcoming horror series begins to sound less like a frightened teenager discovering something impossible and more like a mutant who has not yet found Professor Xavier’s school. The powers in Carrie should feel isolating and dangerous. Turning them into membership in a secret supernatural sorority risks making the character less singular.
My concern grew when Flanagan revealed that, beginning with Episode 2, each installment will open with a different woman somewhere else in the world and at another point in time discovering her abilities. That could become a clever series of miniature horror stories. It could also feel like the Carrie series keeps leaving Carrie to build lore for a larger mythology.
Upon hearing this, my mind immediately went to Stranger Things 2 and “The Lost Sister,” the divisive episode that sent Eleven to meet another powered test subject. The concept made sense within the show, but the detour felt to many viewers like a backdoor pilot interrupting the story they were already invested in. Carrie introducing a new gifted woman every week could create a similar problem if those segments begin to resemble a setup for a telekinetic team-up.
In my opinion, Carrie White does not need mentors, a mythology lesson or a broader mission. Her story works because she is unprepared for both her abilities and the cruelty around her. The horror comes from watching years of abuse and humiliation collide with power she cannot control.
Flanagan may still pull this off. I mean, I have faith as he's created some of my favorite horror movies and series in recent memory. King reportedly approved the new approach and serves as an executive producer, while Flanagan’s previous adaptations have shown how dramatically he can reshape source material without losing its emotional core. For now, though, the “TK gene” is the first Carrie detail that worries me. I want a tragedy soaked in blood, not the opening chapter of the Telekinetic Cinematic Universe.
Carrie is expected to premiere on Prime Video's 2026 streaming schedule in the fall for subscribers with a Prime Video subscription.
