Another Long Delayed Stephen King TV Adaptation Has Officially Been Scrapped

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With the success of IT: Welcome to Derry, The Long Walk, and The Running Man, 2025 felt like a banner year for Stephen King adaptations. Studios were betting big on King again, and fans had plenty to be excited about. Unfortunately, 2026 is already starting on a much rougher note. It has now been confirmed that The CW’s long-gestating series Revelations, which was set to adapt King’s short story The Revelations of ‘Becka Paulson, has officially been cancelled. The show was first announced all the way back in 2020 as part of CW’s lineup, with Maisie Culver and Katie Lovejoy attached as writers and Warner Bros. Television producing. However, after nearly six years of silence and slow movement, the plug on the series is now finally pulled.

King’s original short story focuses on Rebecca “Becka” Paulson, a woman who accidentally shoots herself in the head with her husband’s nail gun, and against all odds, the injury does not kill her. Instead, the nail lodges in her brain, leaving her alive but permanently altered. Soon after, Becka begins to hallucinate conversations with a jaded version of Jesus, who tells her that she is his chosen one and recruits her to help stop the apocalypse. The whole story, by the way, has already been adapted once before, as an episode of The Outer Limits in 1997.

According to Matt’s Inside Line newsletter (via MovieWeb), the cancellation of the upcoming series comes down to corporate overhauls. The CW was acquired by Nexstar in October 2022, and Nexstar quickly moved to cut costs. Many scripted series, including most of the Arrowverse shows, were cancelled or ended early in favor of cheaper acquired programming, reality TV, and sports content. So, a project like Revelations that required a lot of time and money became another casualty of a business decision.

What’s Next for Stephen King Adaptations?

The cancellation of Revelations comes just a week after news broke that another major King project, The Talisman, is also dead. That one hurt even more for many fans. The series was being developed by the Duffer Brothers, fresh off the success of Stranger Things. Naturally, it was seen as one of the most promising King adaptations in years. The Talisman has always had a reputation for being unfilmable due to its massive scope and dense mythology. Steven Spielberg had been attached to various attempts for over 40 years, including a failed effort in 1982 and another stalled version in 2006. He was also involved with the most recent Netflix take, which has now gone nowhere.

Still, it is not all bad news. There are some genuinely exciting projects still moving forward. A24 is currently developing a 10-episode series based on King’s fantasy epic Fairy Tale. Paul Greengrass, known for directing The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, is writing the script and is expected to direct as well. No release date has been announced yet, but given the talent behind the camera and A24's involvement, it is definitely going to be well worth the wait.

Amazon MGM Studios is also pushing ahead with two adaptations, both led by the legendary horror director Mike Flanagan. The first is a new reimagining of Carrie, which is being developed as an eight-part limited series. It is set to star Summer Howell as Carrie, alongside Matthew Lillard, Samantha Sloyan, Kate Siegel, Alison Thornton, and others. Filming wrapped in October 2025, and the series is expected to be released sometime in 2026. The second project is Flanagan’s long-planned Dark Tower series. Based on King’s sprawling saga that connects most of his stories into one sprawling multiverse, this one is still a long way off. Flanagan has said it will take time, mainly because he wants to secure the rights to all the necessary characters. Even if it is still far off, it is reassuring to know he is committed to doing the story justice.