The It factor: Why Hollywood can't get enough of adapting the works of Stephen King

During one of my many visits this summer, my local theater showed back-to-back trailers of The Life of Chuck, The Long Walk, and The Running Man. When the latter finally highlighted that it, too, was "based on the novel by Stephen King", a person behind me chuckled and asked aloud, "Is every movie coming out a Stephen King movie?" It was a joke, of course – while I don't remember what it was we were all watching that day, I know it wasn't King – but with four big-screen and two small-screen adaptations released this year, I can see why they made it.

Written in the 1970s (and published 10 years later), King set The Running Man, Edgar Wright's dystopian actioner about an unemployed guy who signs up to be hunted for money on the titular gameshow (and winds up kickstarting a class revolution), in 2025 – and its depictions of media manipulation, economic inequality, and commoditized violence feel chillingly relevant. It's not the only instance of the author seemingly predicting the future, either; hell, reading The Stand post-COVID is almost enough to convince you he's a time-traveller.

For It: Welcome to Derry co-showrunner Jason Fuchs, that uncanny prescience is a big reason we're seeing more takes on King than ever before. "With It, he created one of the all-time great villains; one that uses fear to divide people," he tells GamesRadar+. "Now I'm lucky enough to be a part of that world, I realize it's a story that was timely when he wrote it and as timely, if not more so, now."

The boom in King adaptations could also boil down to other things; his high-concept stories making for perfect, punchy pitches to studio execs, and the fact he often writes horror. With cinema attendance dwindling, the genre has held strong as one of the most reliably bankable, with many diehard genre fans going to see every new title that fits that bill. They're also cheaper to make than fantasy, animation, and sci-fi – and easier to market as well. "[They're never gonna make you billions but [they] will give you a return on a well-made, low-to-mid budget film," says Dr. Pete Falconer, a Film and TV lecturer at the University of Bristol. Scary movies are a safer bet, essentially, and it's no real wonder Hollywood wants a repeat of the most financially successful King adaptation ever, It (2017), which was made for $30 million and pulled in almost $720 million at the global box office.

Humans first, horror second

Fuchs is quick to point out that King's works span a much broader gamut than just horror, that part of the attraction of his stories is that he's "fundamentally interested in people and their decisions." Sure, It might be about a clown-costumed cosmic entity that's offing kids in a small town in Maine, but its coming-of-age elements are just as memorable and notable as its frights. Osgood Perkins' The Monkey, which released back in February and revolves around a father trying to stop his childhood toy from gruesomely murdering his estranged son, poses poignant existential questions amongst its Final Destination-esque gore.

"So many of his books are about friendship or love," adds The Losers' Club podcast co-host Julia Marchese, who also directed I Know What You Need as part of King's adaptation-encouraging Dollar Baby Program. "I don't think people would be as obsessed with his works if he didn't make you fall in love with every character before he brutally kills them." Such themes inspire deep bonds between his fans, too. Marchese recollects wearing a Long Walk T-shirt to see the movie back in September and being approached by two teenage girls carrying a dog-eared copy of the 1979 novel. "They were 13 or 14, and it was the cutest. On TikTok, The Long Walk has kind of become an adolescent girl obsession. It's a story where you have men opening up and relating to each other and crying and saying, 'I love you'. Those are all pretty radical things, so I can understand why it would appeal to that audience."

In the same year Andy Muschietti's It came out, Sony released The Dark Tower while Netflix produced Gerald's Game and 1922, and the start of the current 'Kingnaissance' emerged. Despite 1922 being considered one of the finer King adaptations, director Zak Hilditch says that "no one wanted to touch" the musophobia-testing thriller at first due to it not being out-and-out horror.

"It was all, 'What is this? Is it period? Crime? Everyone told me to go get fucked," he recalls. Then Ross Dinerstein, a producer who handled the streamer's low-budget horror "saved my bacon", arranging a meeting with Ian Bricke, who led its Original Independent Film Team, and ultimately securing Hilditch just enough money to bring the 'Full Dark, No Stars' novella to life. "It all felt like a dream, like someone was looking out for me. If I didn't connect with the material and have other projects completely die on their ass, it would never have happened. Someone else would have ended up making 1922. Frank Darabont, probably."

New-stalgia

That personal connection appears to be intrinsic to King adaptations. It's not coincidental that the directors behind this year's offerings – Perkins, Wright, The Long Walk's Francis Lawrence, and The Life of Chuck's Mike Flanagan – were all born in the 1970s and have spoken openly about reading King's earlier works when they were youngsters. "It's incredibly surreal to be coming back to the story that shaped my early adolescence and birthed my creativity," says Fuchs of It: Welcome to Derry – and it's not hard to imagine the others feel the same.

Reading It, I remember raising an eyebrow at the two whole pages King spends describing the contents of Eddie Kasbrak's medicine cabinet. In an essay published on Literary Hub, the writer claims it's that commitment to detail that has made his work so visually enticing to the above filmmakers; a sentiment Hilditch echoes: "[1922] was the perfect cheat sheet for an adaptation," he grins. "It felt like There Will Be Blood meets The Shining. King had basically already gone, 'Here's a movie in novella form.' Yes, I had to do some reinventing and cutting to turn it into a screenplay, but it was all pretty much there."

With 50 years of King adaptations out there, that nostalgic fondness doesn't just stem from the source material now, either; it comes from some of the movies themselves. "I haven't seen the new Running Man yet, but the [Arnold] Schwarzenegger version was a beloved film of my youth. You can see a generation of filmmakers looking back to the King adaptations they loved in, say, the 1980s and wanting to do that again – whether that's directly, like with the It remakes, or indirectly through something like Stranger Things," says Falconer.

"You look at Running Man or Long Walk and everyone's like, 'Oh, it's like Squid Game or Hunger Games or whatever.' Like, no, no. Those things are like this," Marchese says of the idea that there's a cyclical element to all this. "It's the other way around. So, I think people then go back and check out the books or movies."

More, more, lore

Just last week, FlixPatrol confirmed It: Welcome to Derry has spent the last month at the top of HBO Max's streaming chart – and with the prequel series' co-creators already having voiced plans for a three-season run, we can assume more episodes are on the way. Over at Prime Video, Flanagan has just wrapped Carrie, where a curious behind-the-scenes photo has left fans wondering whether they're expanding the 300-page book beyond one season. As more creatives embrace the idea of TV King, they're not only managing to avoid ditching interesting subplots from King's often lengthy novels, like Hilditch was forced to, they're creating opportunities to build on them.

"You don't want to tarnish these special stories, and it's a really risky thing to take elements shrouded in secrecy and reveal them," Fuchs says of Derry's recently aired episode 7, which boldly fleshes out It's Bob Gray backstory. "Sometimes the answer to a mystery is not as satisfying, so you really gotta have some awfully good solutions to those mysteries if you're going to delve into them."

He adds: "You also want to leave a world that is as mystery-laden as the one you entered into. With Derry, we've tried to introduce additional mysteries that can be for another generation. We approached it with tremendous enthusiasm and trepidation, but we had a secret weapon in King, who is beyond generous, being our partner on this. You have a lot of freedom to take that swing, but if you get it wrong, he'll tell you."

Is there a risk of oversaturation? Marchese worries so, given studios' current obsession with cinematic universes and Welcome to Derry's strong links to fellow Warner Bros. property Doctor Sleep. "[What] if the Welcome to Derry world becomes like Star Wars?" she ponders. If it does, King isn't concerned. "I send my books off to be filmed the way parents send their kids off to college, hoping they'll do well and not fall into any of the pits and snares along the way," he writes in the aforementioned column. "I offer advice when asked. Otherwise, I shut my mouth and hope for the best, knowing that my books – good, bad, indifferent – are still all up there on the shelf."

As for me? I've had a prophecy – myself, sat in the cinema watching back-to-back trailers for upcoming adaptations Cujo, Rat, The Girl Who Loved Tim Gordon, and The Stand – and unlike the bleak events King typically anticipates of years to come, I'm looking forward to it.

It: Welcome to Derry is streaming now on HBO Max, while The Institute is on MGM+. The Monkey is available on Hulu, with The Life of Chuck set to land on the streamer on December 26. The Running Man is still showing in select theaters, and you can buy/rent The Long Walk on the likes of Prime Video, Apple TV, and YouTube.

For more, check out our ranking of the best Stephen King adaptations and our list of the best TV shows of 2025.