When one looks back on the full legacy of Stephen King, 2025 will be remembered as one of the all-time greatest years for the legendary storyteller – and I say that without a trace of worry about recency bias. On the book front, Constant Readers got both the novel Never Flinch and the illustrated fairy tale Hansel & Gretel (not to mention the Stand-inspired anthology The End of the World As We Know It); the big screen saw premieres of Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck, Francis Lawrence’s The Long Walk and Edgar Wright’s The Running Man; and the small screen saw debuts of MGM+’s The Institute and HBO’s IT: Welcome To Derry. It was an unprecedented year in the world of King in terms of “new.”
The bad news? After such a rich 12 months, 2026 is going to look a bit bereft by comparison, as there aren’t anywhere near as many new projects set to be published or premiered. That being said, just because there isn’t an overabundance flooding the calendar doesn’t mean that there aren’t some key, exciting developments to follow in the coming year, and so, for this final edition of The King Beat in 2025, I’m going to highlight four key projects that are expected to see significant progress in the near future. It’s a rich and exciting subject, so let’s dig in!
