Without a doubt, Mike Flanagan is one of the standout directors of contemporary horror, if not the essential one. While many came to know him in recent years for helming “The Haunting of Hill House” for Netflix, his career is both extensive and impressive.
Since his breakout hit with 2013’s “Oculus,” Flanagan has revived the genre and started cementing his name as a Hollywood filmmaker. With “Hush,” “Ouija: Origin of Evil,” and “Gerald’s Game,” he continued to solidify his reputation. His success culminated in continuing the legacy of “The Shining” with “Doctor Sleep,” starring Ewan McGregor.
With such an impressive filmography, the horror expert has become a director whose next releases are eagerly anticipated. So, what are Mike Flanagan’s upcoming projects?
All about Mike Flanagan’s upcoming projects
- As director
The Life of Chuck – September 2024
It looks like Stephen King was impressed with Mike Flanagan’s direction of the “Doctor Sleep” sequel! In their second collaboration, Flanagan will adapt King’s short story “The Life of Chuck,” which blends drama and fantasy. The film is set to be released in September 2024.
It consists of three interconnected stories that chronicle the life of Charles Krantz in reverse, beginning with his death from a brain tumor at 39 and ending with his childhood in an allegedly haunted house.
The cast is stellar! Tom Hiddleston will portray Chuck, and he will be joined by Kate Siegel, Jacob Tremblay, Mark Hamill, Lauren LaVera, Matthew Lillard, and more.
Untitled the Exorcist/Mike Flanagan Project – March 13, 2026
In 2023, Blumhouse decided to revive the franchise of “The Exorcist” with a sixth installment. While it performed excellently at the box office, it was destroyed by both critics and the public. David Gordon Green, the director, has since stepped away from the other two planned movies that were going to make a new trilogy.
Consequently, Jason Blum decided there was only one person capable of rescuing the project: Mike Flanagan. Having successfully directed the sequel to “The Shining,” Flanagan understands the responsibility of handling a heavy legacy and is not intimidated by it.
It’s unclear how he will expand the plot that Gordon Green started, but it’s likely he will start from scratch. Flanagan has indicated he plans to create something completely new, a fresh start. No one wants this nightmare to continue, but Flanagan is undoubtedly the best option to handle it.
- As producer
Carrie series for Prime Video
Mike Flanagan and Stephen King’s fourth collaboration will be an eight-episode series adaptation of “Carrie” for Prime Video. While there is no release date or cast announced, we can expect it to feature some of his beloved muses (Kate Siegel and Henry Thomas, for example) and to be released in about a year, especially since a writers’ room has already been organized.
This project is quite a milestone, as it is poised to mark one of many works by Flanagan for Amazon following their 2022 multiyear series deal. This is the same contract he had with Netflix, but it allegedly did not continue due to the director’s dissatisfaction with how they promoted “The Midnight Club”.
While it was quite expected that this first project under the Prime Video banner would be the still very shaky “The Dark Tower” series, it looks like we will see the telekinetic prom queen transformed into an assassin first.