The world of Stephen King’s The Stand is inching closer to reality on CBS All Access. Today, Vanity Fair dropped another one of its trademark first looks, offering a number of details and glimpses of Josh Boone’s forthcoming miniseries.
Below, you can see stunning portraits of Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abigail, Alexander Skarsgard as Randall Flagg, Odessa Young as Frannie Goldsmith, Jovan Adepo as Larry Underwood, Owen Teague as Harold Lauder, Heather Graham as Rita Blakemoor, and Nat Wolff as Lloyd Henreid.
In addition to the eye candy, there are a number of intriguing takeaways from the story. First off, the production wrapped four days early due to COVID-19. The show itself begins after the Captain Trips pandemic has taken effect with Lost-esque flashbacks to reveal the roots of the terror. And, more importantly, CBS All Access has no plans to postpone the series due to the pandemic.
Published in 1978 and updated in 1990, the 1,200 page tome takes place in a world ravaged by an unstoppable plague, where the survivors are caught in an elemental struggle between good and evil. There are those who follow the prophetic wisdom of 108-year-old Mother Abagail, and there are those who follow the lead of the eternally evil Randall Flagg.
“It’s about the fundamental questions of what society owes the individual and what we owe to each other,” said Benjamin Cavell, who serves as showrunner alongside Taylor Elmore. “Over the last however-many years, we have sort of taken for granted the structure of democracy. Now, so much of that is being ripped down to the studs. It’s interesting to see a story about people who are rebuilding it from the ground up.”
Sadly, we still have no release date, but knowing that it’s wrapped is a good sign that the nine-episode jaunt should drop sometime this Fall. In addition to the aforementioned, the cast also includes James Marsden as Stu Redman; Amber Heard as Nadine Cross; Greg Kinnear as Glen Bateman; Marilyn Manson as Trashcan Man; and Heather Graham as Rita Blakemoor.
Stay tuned to our weekly Stephen King podcast, The Losers’ Club, for further developments. Below, you can stream their exhaustive review on the 1994 miniseries, which includes an interview with both Garris and composer W.G. Snuffy Walden.
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