When The Stand premieres on on Dec. 17, you'll be reminded that it's more than a little ballsy to launch a series about a pandemic in the middle of a pandemic. But then again, it's alway a bold act to adapt one of Stephen King's greatest works.
“During the two years we spent making The Stand, we all felt the responsibility of adapting what may be the most beloved work of one of the world’s most beloved storytellers," said show runner and executive producer Benjamin Cavell. "but none of us could have imagined that Stephen King’s 40-year-old masterpiece about a global pandemic would come to be so eerily relevant.”
The Stand — the story of a global plague that ultimately pits good versus evil in a final showdown — is an epic tome unto itself, and it's already been made into a miniseries once before. This time around it features Whoopi Goldberg as the 108-year-old Mother Abigail, Alexander Skarsgård as the Dark Man, James Marsden as Stu Redman, Amber Heard as Nadine Cross, Heather Graham as Rita Blakemoor, Greg Kinnear as Glen Bateman, and Owen Teague as Harold Lauder.
The story stretches out as society falls apart amid the ever-spreading death, then begins to come back together, drawn either to Mother Abigail in the Colorado mountains, or the Dark Man in the Las Vegas desert. And the nine-episode series will close with a new coda written by King himself.
“We’re honored to tell this sprawling, epic story," Cavell said, "including a new coda that Stephen King has wanted to add for decades. We’re so proud of this show and its attempt to find meaning and hope in the most uncertain of times. We can’t wait to share it with the world.”
New episodes will drop every Thursday following the premiere.
CBS All Access is home to the bulk of the ViacomCBS catalog, as well as the only place for new exclusives like Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, The Twilight Zone, and The Good Fight. It costs $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year with limited commercials, or $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year to go (mostly) commercial-free.
