‘The Institute’ Boss Explains Adaptation’s Major Changes From Stephen King’s Novel

Don’t go down that hallway! Stephen King‘s 2019 novel The Institute hits the small screen in this eight-episode sci-fi drama on MGM+, which explores a world where gifted youths are kidnapped from their families and thrown into a place called the Institute. Masquerading as an infectious disease laboratory, the youth are tested on and, as they develop psychic abilities, used by the shady government agency to covertly murder political opponents around the globe.

The action begins when genius teenager Luke Ellis (newcomer Joe Freeman) is captured and brought to the creepy facility — and immediately knows that something very sinister is going on. “When Luke first arrives, he is disoriented and confused. He quickly surmises that he and the other kids were kidnapped. The doctors and workers there are far from as welcoming as they seem,” says director and executive producer Jack Bender (Lost). Bender tells us that he fell in love with King’s story when the author, whom he also worked with to bring Mr. Mercedes to life on the network for three seasons, sent him an early copy before it was published.

Leading the initiative within the Institute’s walls is Mary-Louise Parker‘s Ms. Sigsby, an evil utilitarian force who thinks Luke should feel grateful for being chosen for his special abilities — and for being given the opportunity to serve his country. “Ms. Sigsby is a true believer,” Bender says. “She lives for her work and what The Institute achieves for the ‘greater good’ of the world. She walks that razor’s edge of charm and diabolical power to achieve her goals.” Thankfully, adds the EP, “Luke is smart enough to know that he can’t trust Sigsby.”

While Luke and his fellow prisoners plot to escape, there’s one person on the outside looking in: ex-cop Tim Jamieson (Ben Barnes), who is trying to escape his own painful past. He takes on a position as a night-knocker for the local police force and becomes suspicious of the mysterious lab. “It’s a bit different from the book — something we, my executive producing partner and head writer, Ben Cavell and I had pitched to Stephen King — having Tim not end up in a town far away from The Institute,” Bender explains. “Under the pretext of being an infectious disease lab to keep people away, the Institute sits just across the river from town. Tim is a former police officer who’s trying to escape the pain of a devastating, although legal, shooting of a teenager who fired at him.”

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Also a big change for readers of the bestseller? Luke and his fellow captives are aged up from the novel into older teens. “I think young people will connect with them and emotionally invest in their struggle to survive,” notes Bender.

And struggle they will, as the EP confirms: “Something is indeed rotten in the state of The Institute.”

The Institute, Series Premiere, Sunday, July 13, 9/8c, MGM+