Stephen King Show’s Confirmed Return In 2026 Sets Up Another Great Year For His TV Adaptations

5 days ago 21

Hannah Galway’s Wendy leaning against her car in MGM+’s The Institute

Published Apr 18, 2026, 11:45 PM EDT

Dhruv is a Lead Writer in Screen Rant's New TV division. He has been consistently contributing to the website for over two years and has written thousands of articles covering streaming trends, movie/TV analysis, and pop culture breakdowns.
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After high school, he was on his way to become a Civil Engineer. However, he soon realized that writing was his true calling. As a result, he took a leap and never looked back.

One Stephen King series is returning in 2026 with its next installment, which seems to perfectly set the stage for another incredible year for the author's small-screen adaptations. While the show in question is not critically acclaimed, it has immense potential and will likely get better in its upcoming installment.

A massive wave of Stephen King adaptations hit the big and small screens in 2025. While adaptations of the author's work are known to be hit or miss, almost all adaptations from 2025 seemed promising. Movie adaptations, like The Long Walk and The Life of Chuck, struggled at the box office. However, they managed to impress viewers and critics, allowing them to rank among the best takes on King's work.

Even on the small screen, two Stephen King adaptations premiered in 2026: The Institute and It: Welcome to Derry. While only It: Welcome to Derry proved to be a critical hit, both shows performed incredibly from a commercial standpoint, and The Institute is also expected to return with season 2 this year. With The Institute's confirmed return, 2026 already looks bright for Stephen King adaptations.

Like 2025, 2026 Promises To Be A Good Year For Stephen King’s TV Adaptations

Joe Freeman as Luke Ellis being experimented on in The Institute

Stephen King's books are usually adapted for the big screens. A similar trend was also observed in 2025 when several movies, like The Monkey, The Long Walk, and The Running Man, picked King's novels for adaptation. Interestingly, though, two TV adaptations of Stephen King's works also premiered in the same year. While one, MGM+'s The Institute, had a relatively tinier budget, It: Welcome to Derry was backed by HBO's high production value.

2020's The Outsider was the last Stephen King TV show that managed to earn wide critical acclaim. After The Outsider, no show based on King's works managed to leave its mark. Surprisingly, in 2025, both It: Welcome to Derry and The Institute proved to be successful in one way or the other. While The Institute received a fairly average reception from critics, it performed well enough to be renewed for another season.

It: Welcome to Derry not only shattered many viewership records on HBO after its premiere but also landed in most critics' good books. Owing to the success of The Institute and It: Welcome to Derry, it is fair to say that 2025 was a good year for Stephen King's TV adaptations.

With The Institute season 2 set to premiere in 2026 and Mike Flanagan's Carrie also eyeing a late 2026 release, it is hard not to believe that this year, too, will prove to be incredible for Stephen King shows. Considering the potential scope of The Institute's storytelling and its established supernatural lore, it could grow into a Stranger Things-level series if handled well in season 2.

Mike Flanagan's Carrie, on the other hand, carries the weight of high expectations because of Flanagan's almost perfect record in the horror genre and Carrie's long-standing cinematic legacy. With so much going on in their favor, both shows will likely turn out to be incredible adaptations and potentially make 2026 even better for Stephen King fans than 2025.

Stephen King TV Adaptations’ Success Proves We Need A Dark Tower Show Soon

The gunslinger on the cover of Stephen King’s Dark Tower

Mike Flanagan's take on Stephen King's The Dark Tower has been one of the most talked-about book-to-screen adaptations in recent years. Although the wheels of its production are yet to start moving, a Dark Tower TV show seems like the need of the hour. Despite being an incredible book series, The Dark Tower is yet to get a worthy adaptation.

In an era where many Stephen King stories are constantly getting remade, it is almost disappointing that Dark Tower is being overlooked. Unfortunately, it will be a while before Mike Flanagan's take on The Dark Tower sees the light of day.

While waiting for its release, Stephen King fans can look forward to Mike Flanagan's Carrie or check out The Institute on MGM+, which shares some intriguing narrative parallels with some of Dark Tower's story arcs. Mike Flanagan is also reportedly working on a movie adaptation of Stephen King's The Mist, which could further prepare him for his Dark Tower TV show.