Of all the faces we’d expect to see attending Carrie White’s cinematic prom, Bryan Fuller is not very high on the list. The writer and producer plays a chaperone in Mike Flanagan’s new adaptation of Carrie, the debut novel of Stephen King.
Standing next to him is Don Mancini, creator of the Child’s Play franchise. While both are lifelong Constant Readers — and Mancini frequently cites Brian De Palma’s Carrie as his favorite horror film — Fuller’s connection to the source material runs a bit deeper than pure fandom.
By now we all know Carrie’s tragic story. The high school outcast is relentlessly bullied by her popular classmates and religious mother, Margaret. When she gets her first period after gym, Carrie becomes the obsession of mean girl Chris Hargensen and her more empathetic friend Sue Snell, who tries to make amends by asking her boyfriend to take Carrie to prom. But Chris has a more sinister plan in mind.
Arranging for Carrie to be elected Prom Queen, Chris “coronates” her by emptying a bucket of pig’s blood over her head. Only then do her fellow prom-goers learn that Carrie has the power to move objects with her mind. Unleashing her telekinetic rage, the bloody Prom Queen sets fire to the gym and half the town. Upon returning home, she kills her mother in self-defense, then succumbs to the strain of her psychic gifts.
The 1974 novel was a modest success and launched King’s legendary career. But the name Carrie White became ubiquitous two years later with the release of De Palma’s masterful adaptation. The horrific story has since woven its way through modern culture, familiar to horror fans and normies alike. In 2002, Bryan Fuller penned a remake of King’s source material, attempting to modernize and expand the relatively slim story.
Bryan Fuller Already Tried to Change Carrie’s Fate
Directed by David Carson, Fuller’s Carrie is a more or less faithful retelling, with Angela Bettis starring as the doomed Prom Queen. Patricia Clarkson co-stars as Margaret White in a subdued performance that sharply contrasts with Piper Laurie’s iconic villainess. Fuller also includes the novel’s semi-epistolary format and frames the story with police interviews, conducted by Detective John Mulcahey (David Keith). However, Fuller’s script concludes with a shocking twist.
When Carrie returns from the Prom Night disaster, she takes a bath in her ruined gown. Feigning compassion, her vicious mother pushes her head under the water, attempting to murder her child for her “sinful” behavior. With the last bit of her strength, Carrie uses her powers to slowly stop her mother’s heart, leaving Margaret dead on the bathroom floor.
Thankfully, Sue (Kandyse McClure) discovers the dying teen and delivers mouth to mouth resuscitation. She assists Carrie in faking her death and hiding from authorities. The adaptation ends with Sue driving Carrie to Florida, where she will disguise her identity and start a new life.
The TV Series That Never Happened
Fuller’s teleplay was originally designed to launch a continuing series in the Carrie world. Slated as a two-part television event for NBC, Fuller explained in a 2006 interview with CBR that “the network wanted a movie-of-the-week and the studio needed more money so they said they wouldn’t let them do a movie-of-the-week, but they would let them do a backdoor pilot.” Faced with this “daunting” editorial task, Fuller considered transferring the Prom Queen’s powers to Sue or following another telekinetic girl. He ultimately rejected these ideas in favor of allowing Carrie to survive.
In 2002, the writer explained to Fangoria, “One of the things we all felt really bad about was that you have this woman who is victimized her entire life and then, the moment things start to come through for her, she is victimized again. And then she becomes a murderer, and you kill her. That just seemed really cruel.”
While Carrie devotees would no doubt agree, a psychic connection with Sue would have been an interesting move, particularly considering Carrie’s literary end. After completing her mission of bloody revenge, Carrie collapses under the cardiac strain. Sue uses her own intuition to track the Prom Queen down and finds her barely clinging to life. As she dies, Carrie telepathically searches Sue’s mind for involvement in the pig’s blood prank, ultimately deciding that she is innocent. Sue then experiences Carrie’s death as the “signal” of her consciousness flickers out. She must now continue on with this horrifying preview of what awaits her in the afterlife.
Rather than killing Carrie off, Fuller planned to unite the teen survivors. A subsequent series would likely see Sue and Carrie travel the country trying to help other psychic outcasts while Carrie wrestled with the weight of her guilt. We may have gotten a Monster of the Week format similar to the structure of The X-Files. By centering young women, the story could also have mirrored the trajectory and tone of the CW’s Supernatural, which would premiere just three years later. David Keith would no doubt have reprised his role as Detective Mulchaey while Jasmine Guy may have joined the cast as a paranormal investigator. The celebrated actress filmed a handful of scenes for the original mini-series that were ultimately left on the cutting room floor.
But alas, a Carrie series was not to be. Though the television event boasted strong viewership, critics were ultimately underwhelmed, taking issue with the admittedly cheap special effects. Though Fuller had outlined a second episode, the project eventually fell apart. Fuller explains, “I don’t think the network ever intended to do a series; they were just playing the studio. But we jumped through all the hoops and had all the elements in play for a series with Carrie on the road with Sue and what would happen in the wake of Prom Night.”
This loss feels like a missed opportunity, especially considering Fuller’s success with another iconic horror text. In 2013, he built on Thomas Harris’ Hannibal trilogy to reimagine horror’s most famous cannibal. The gruesomely gorgeous Hannibal follows FBI agent Will Graham (Hugh Dancy) as he matches wits with Dr. Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen), expanding Harris’ celebrated novels into a successful three-season run. In 2021, he announced a similar project which would adapt Christine, King’s 1983 novel about a killer car. While certainly exciting for Constant Readers, that project also seems to have fallen apart.
Mike Flanagan’s Carrie Echoes Fuller’s Vision
Now thirteen years later, Flanagan may have revived Fuller’s original idea — and celebrated by inviting the horror icon to prom. The director’s new eight-part series for Amazon Prime also concludes with Carrie (Summer H. Howell) heading into the larger world. In the weeks leading up to the Prom Night disaster, she has befriended a fellow outcast named Emaline (Thalia Dudek) who has her own set of powerful gifts.
She not only helps Carrie hone her TK skills, but takes charge moments after the pig’s blood falls, while the Prom Queen is too stunned to retaliate. Emaline takes Carrie’s powers on a murderous spree, and the girls dance in the flames that consume the town. But Emaline is felled by a mysterious attacker, and Carrie is once again left on her own.
Returning home, she seeks comfort from her mother, Margaret (Samantha Sloyan), who helps to clean the blood from her skin. But as mother and daughter pray for forgiveness, Margaret tries to murder her child, hoping to protect the world from a power she does not understand. Mirroring De Palma’s shocking conclusion, Carrie pulls the house down on both of their heads.
But like Fuller’s Sue, Emaline arrives just in time. She pulls Carrie out of the rubble and drives her away. Flanagan’s series also ends with two girls on the road, albeit with an entirely different threat to escape.
A Bigger Stephen King Universe?
Throughout the series, we’ve caught glimpses of a mysterious woman named Adelaide (Kate Siegel) who leads a group of similarly powerful women, including a woman named Caitlin (Delainey Hayles) who senses Carrie each time she uses her gifts. Adelaide’s psychic soldiers arrive at prom determined to protect Carrie from a maternal assassin.
Fearing Carrie’s telekinesis, Margaret has reached out to a woman named Amanda (Katee Sackhoff) who works with another shadowy group to rid the world of these magical girls. On the road, Emaline refuses to tell Carrie where they are headed, worried that Adelaide and her partners will invade her mind and use this knowledge to track them both down.
Though we don’t know much about Adelaide’s intentions, there may be a clue hidden in Fuller’s adaptation. Detective Mulchaey, the investigator on Carrie’s trail, is played by none other than David Keith. The veteran actor has starred in a number of genre films, but Constant Readers know him best as Andy McGee.
In Mark L. Lester’s 1984 adaptation of King’s Firestarter, he plays the father of Charlie McGee, a little girl gifted with pyrokinesis. Thanks to a government agency known as The Shop, Andy has developed the power of mental domination. Referred to as “the push,” he can mentally emphasize chosen words and convince his targets to obey his commands. Adelaide demonstrates similar traits as she also interviews survivors of the Prom Night tragedy.
Ordinarily we could chalk these similarities up to narrative coincidence or claim that great minds often think alike. However, Fuller’s presence — and cinematic demise — at Flanagan’s 2026 Prom bears closer consideration. Is the newest Carrie adaptor tipping his hand and previewing a plan for installments to come?
Will Fuller be involved in Flanagan’s proposed three-season arc? Perhaps we will get to revisit what might have been and finally catch a glimpse of Fuller’s intended vision.
