Carrie is an upcoming American supernatural horror television miniseries developed by Mike Flanagan, and produced by Amazon MGM Studios for Amazon Prime Video. The first televised adaptation of the eponymous franchise, it is based on the 1974 novel by Stephen King, and is the fourth screen adaptation of the novel.
The series follows Carrie White (Summer H. Howell), a teenage girl who has spent her life in seclusion, as she joins high school following her father's death, and the emergence of her mysterious telekinetic powers. It also stars Samantha Sloyan, Siena Agudong, Alison Thornton, Joel Oulette, Josie Totah, Arthur Conti, Thalia Dudek, Amber Midthunder, and Matthew Lillard.
Plans for a television series adaptation of the novel started in 2002 with a television film intended as a backdoor pilot by MGM Television but later passed on by NBC. In 2019, a miniseries was in development at FX but was never ordered by the network. Amazon announced a new project's development for Amazon Prime Video in 2024, with Flanagan serving as showrunner, while King joined as an executive producer. It was given a series order in April 2025. Principal photography occurred in Vancouver, Canada, from June to October 2025.
Carrie is scheduled to premiere on October 7, 2026, on Amazon Prime Video.
Contents
Premise
Carrie is described as a reimagining of the story of misfit high schooler Carrie White (Summer H. Howell), who has spent her life in seclusion with her domineering mother (Samantha Sloyan). After her father’s sudden death, Carrie finds herself contending with the challenges of attending high school, a bullying scandal, and the emergence of mysterious telekinetic powers.
Cast and characters
Main
Summer H. Howell as Carrie White, a meek and socially inept teenager who uses her newfound telekinesis to exact vengeance on her bullies
Samantha Sloyan as Margaret White, Carrie's religious and abusive mother
Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, a popular student who experiences remorse for partaking in Carrie's bullying
Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, the ringleader of a pack of mean girls who bullies Carrie
Joel Oulette as Tommy Ross, Sue's goodhearted boyfriend who agrees to take Carrie to the prom
Josie Totah as Tina Blake, Chris' best friend and co-conspirator in a senior prom prank against Carrie
Arthur Conti as Billy Nolan, Chris' juvenile delinquent boyfriend
Thalia Dudek as Emaline
Amber Midthunder as Rita Desjardin, Carrie's gym teacher who defends her against her bullies
Matthew Lillard as Henry Grayle, the principal of Thomas Ewen Consolidated High School
Recurring
Kate Siegel
Michael Trucco as John Hargensen, Chris' wealthy lawyer father
Katee Sackhoff as Judith Brigham, Margaret's mother and Carrie's maternal grandmother
Rahul Kohli as Harold Allison, Margaret's stepfather
Tim Bagley as John Brigham, Margaret's father and Carrie's maternal grandfather
Heather Graham as Mrs. Hargensen, Chris' mother and John's wife
Tahmoh Penikett as Ralph White, Margaret's husband and Carrie's late father
Ruth Codd as Cara
Crystal Balint
Danielle Klaudt
Mapuana Makia as Eleanor Snell, Sue's mother
Rowan Danielle as Brooklyn
Naika Toussaint
Delainey Hayles
Cassandra Naud
Gil Bellows
Mckayla Carse
Olive Abercrombie as Abby
Production
Development
In December 2022, Mike Flanagan signed a first-look overall TV deal with Amazon Studios. Upon striking the deal, Flanagan immediately tried to launch a televised adaptation of Stephen King's novel series The Dark Tower, a passion project of his he had discussed repeateadly over the years, but Flanagan found the project "one of the most complicated properties to get started" because getting its greenlight was a much longer and involved process than anything he had ever approached in his life, but then Amazon brought to him the idea to launch their partnership with an adaptation of King's novel Carrie (1974), with Flanagan proposing a new take that excited even King, leading him to assemble his frequent collaborators to do so. In October 2024, it was announced that Flanagan's first project under that deal would be a new adaptation of King's Carrie novel, in the form of an eight episode miniseries, at Amazon Prime Video. A writers' room was launched to flesh out the story. Flanagan had previously helmed adaptations of King's novels including Gerald's Game (2017), Doctor Sleep (2019), and The Life of Chuck (2024). Around this time, Flanagan pitched the film Clayface (2026) to James Gunn and Peter Safran for the DC Universe (DCU), which he developed and wrote, but when it came time to start production on it, Flanagan was unavailable to direct it due to his commitments to Carrie and The Exorcist: Martyrs (2027), resulting in James Watkins being hired instead. Flanagan served as writer and showrunner on the series, in addition to directing four episodes. King also executive produces the series.
Writing
Compared to most projects based on King's novels where stories have to be compressed, Flanagan acknowledged that, because the original Carrie novel is one of King's shortest books plus the fact that they would adapt it into an eight-episode miniseries, they had to expand the novel to tell Carrie White's story in a longform way. Despite the project's announcement as an adaptation, Flanagan never saw it as a straight one given how he deemed Brian De Palma as having adapted the story "faithfully and beautifully" in Carrie (1976), which was followed by a sequel The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999) and two more adaptations, which were Carrie (2002) and Carrie (2013), both "officially and unofficially", in addition to being imitated "scores of times", so for Flanagan, the only way he could approach a new version was to build something new out of the story's ingredients, as otherwise, there was really no purpose in trying to retread ground of something previously done.
For Flanagan, the themes King talked about in the original novel published in the 1970s of kindness versus cruelty, empathy and bullying or school violence have since become even more relevant by the 2020s more than the author could have contemplated because of society's relationship with technology and the degree to which violence encroaches high schoolers, especially in the United States of America, giving them the opportunity to tell a story about a modern teenage experience that could use the seeds of King's characters but express them in a completely different way. Unlike previous versions, Flanagan's version of Carrie White has spent her life hidden away at home with her mother Margaret, with the state not even knowing of their existence until the sudden death of Carrie's father and Margaret's husband Ralph, forcing a spotlight onto their household that prompts Carrie to enter public school for the first time in her life. Whereas De Palma's Carrie was a "clenched first who's absolutely shaking out there in the world", Flanagan's Carrie is "wide open", "eager", "curious" and "earnest", walking into teen age without without any sense of danger but with the innate trust in people and goodness. Likewise, in contrast to the tyrannical parental abuser she was in King's novel and De Palma's film, Margaret is a woman who fiercely loves her daughter and wants to protect her from the world's dangers which she is aware unlike her daughter, so she thinks because of her lack of knowledge on how to do so that the best way to protect her is to close her off not punitively but by creating a private utopia where Carrie exists curiously, earnestly, and wide open as she protects her from the world, giving them a completely different dynamic. Although the serialized miniseries includes differences to the original novel, Flanagan confirmed that core events from the original story like familiar characters will still be mantained, like Chris Hargensen, Sue Snell, Tommy Ross, Billy Nolan, Rita Desjardin, Principal Grayle and Tina Blake among others, though new characters also appear such as one named Emaline.
Casting
In April 2025, Summer H. Howell was in talks to join in the lead role as Carrie White, and that Siena Agudong was cast as Sue Snell. In what he described one of the biggest casting searches of his career, Flanagan and his team saw more than a thousand actresses for Carrie, but many of the candidates understandably tempted to emulate Sissy Spacek's performance from the 1976 film despite that being something the team quietly tried to avoid, though ironically, while Howell looked like Spacek back then, she brought a take entirely of her own that showed a performance too good that the team was willing to live with the physical similarities consequently. In May, Matthew Lillard was in talks to join the series in an undisclosed role and Howell was officially cast as Carrie.
In June, Lillard was confirmed to join the series, alongside Samantha Sloyan, Alison Thornton, Thalia Dudek, Amber Midthunder, Josie Totah, Arthur Conti, Joel Oulette, Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco, Katee Sackhoff, Rahul Kohli, Tim Bagley, Heather Graham, Tahmoh Penikett, Crystal Balint, Danielle Klaudt, Mapuana Makia, Rowan Danielle, Naika Toussaint, Delainey Hayles and Cassandra Naud. Flanagan wrote Margaret's role specifically for Sloyan, deeming it "the part she was born to play", comparing her to Bev Keane, the corrupt character she played in Flanagan's Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass (2019), but noting that much like Carrie, he and his team wanted to take a different approach on Margaret. Thalia Dudek also joins the cast as new character Emaline.
Filming
Principal photography began in Vancouver on June 16, 2025, and wrapped on October 25, 2025.
Music
On July 13, 2026, The Newton Brothers was announced to compose the series.
Release
Carrie is set to be released globally with all eight episodes on Amazon Prime Video on October 7, 2026. Before the global release, the series is set to premiere in the "Primetime" program at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2026.
Other media
A tie-in book edition based on the 1974 novel and the series is set to be released by Vintage Books on September 29, 2026.
