The Institute showrunners explain why the new Stephen King dystopian sci-fi TV series is more timely than ever: "Children shall inherit the earth, but first they have to save themselves"

Joe Freeman as Luke Ellis in The Institute — (Image credit: Amazon MGM Studios)

The Institute showrunners Jack Bender and Ben Cavell say the new Stephen King adaptation is more timely than ever - because children are the ones leading the change.

"It was following the Parkland massacre shooting in the States, which seems to be an epidemic in our challenged country," Bender explains to GamesRadar+, when asked why now was the time to adapt King's 2019 novel into an eight-episode series. "I saw those kids who survived the tragedy come out of that as a group that was becoming political and defying and going to city council meetings and going around and saying, while they were seniors in high school, 'You adults don't know. You've got to do this. You've got to do that. We can fix it, but get out of our way and let us do it.'"

"And when I saw that, I thought, God bless them. They're right. That's the future. And we have screwed up as adults. And to me, those kids - when you think of the phrase 'the meek shall inherit the earth,' for the show, we think of 'children shall inherit the earth.' But first they have to save themselves. That's very much, I believe, at the heart of what we thought this could be, aside from being a really entertaining, twisted, believable, and compelling series."

In The Institute, young children with telepathic and telekinetic abilities are abducted from their families in the middle of the night and forced to undergo grueling experiments at a cruel institution run by a mysterious and powerful entity. It's only when Luke (Joe Freeman), the latest kidnappee, arrives that a revolt of sorts begins to form. The head woman in charge, Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker), seems to truly believe that the torturous experiments are for the greater good – even if it means pushing the kids to point of no return.

The trailer seems to imply that Tim (Ben Barnes), a new-to-town police officer who begins to do his own investigation into The Institute, is the one who will save them – but Cavell says that's not the case.

Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.

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