As the creative force behind highly acclaimed titles such as Midnight Mass and The Haunting of Hill House, horror auteur Mike Flanagan is a natural pick to adapt Stephen King’s Carrie for the small screen. Following the first project of his multiyear deal with Amazon MGM Studios, the filmmaker may step into the universe of popular miniature game Warhammer 40K.
Per Deadline, Flanagan is in talks to executive produce the live-action series adaptation starring Henry Cavill, on top of serving as showrunner, writer, and director. In its annual financial report for 2026, Games Workshop notes that he “should soon be moving on to the script,” with Vertigo Entertainment and Cavill remaining “involved as they have been for some time.”
It’s much-needed good news for fans, especially with the sparse updates since the initial announcement in 2022. Not much else is known about the project, but Warhammer 40K, set in a distant future, follows humanity’s struggle for survival amid constant threats from hostile aliens and supernatural creatures both within and outside a stagnant civilisation. Flanagan’s involvement will likely lean into horror, which lore-wise spans creepy planets such as Ghoul Stars and the Death World of Dusk, grotesque enemies, and more.
Acknowledging the difficulty of bringing the vast sci-fi universe to life, Cavill shared in an interview with Esquire: “It’s different from what I’ve done before, in the sense I haven’t had my hand on the tiller of things before. It’s wonderful doing that. It is a tricky IP, and a very complex IP, and that’s what I love about it. The challenges that come with putting this on the page in a way that is doing justice to that complexity, that trickiness, and that nuance, is a challenge I’m enjoying enormously.”
In the meantime, the Man of Steel star is keeping busy. Now that Enola Holmes 3 is out, a Highlander reboot and a Voltron film for streaming are next in his pipeline. There’s also a new upcoming real-time strategy title on the gaming front, set to launch on 17 September.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
