‘Carrie’: Mike Flanagan Confirms Connection to ‘Dark Tower’ Universe

In addition to bringing a 21st-century rendering of Stephen King‘s classic supernatural teen thriller of the same name, Mike Flanagan‘s series-length adaptation of Carrie also more closely connects the story to another King story he’s been working to bring to screen life for years: The Dark Tower. Warning: The following post contains spoilers for Carrie.

Carrie (Summer H. Howell) herself — plus, possibly, her mother Margaret (Samantha Sloyan — is gifted with a type of shine. In her case, it’s a telekinetic power that gives her intense mind control over essentially any object. Throughout the series, she hones this gift with the help of her mystery friend Emaline (Thalia Dudek), who, in the end, seems to be a figment of Carrie’s desperately lonely imagination until new evidence suggests she also has the shine… possibly of the astral projection type. On top of that, we also meet a ring of mysterious finale characters, led by an unnamed documentarian (Kate Siegel), who ostensibly interview the survivors of Carrie’s now-fabled massacre of the town and, upon discovering Margaret’s gift, slowly instruct her to die.

That last crew is left searching for Carrie, who has escaped with the help of Emaline and is on the road to somewhere that’s supposedly safe, and this confluence of circumstances opens the floodgates of possible connections to other King stories. Emaline could belong to The Institute or the Shop from Firestarter, and the video gals could easily belong to the ancient nomads in Doctor Sleep (a story that Flanagan himself has commandingly adapted).

Amazon Studios

Hints at Carrie’s connection to a greater world could be found in King’s writing, of course, but this Carrie more obviously connects the story to that larger universe.

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'The Dark Tower': Mike Flanagan Updates on Stephen King Adaptation

“The beautiful thing about Stephen King is that the connections between the universe that he’s built are some of the most fun, as lovers of Stephen King, that you get to make those connections,” Flanagan told TV Insider of the connection to the larger fictional universe detailed in The Dark Tower. “I do think this all exists on a certain level of the Tower, and Carrie’s place in that bigger world is something he hints at very much in the book. It was really exciting for us to be able to do that in practice and to really go into that.” Flanagan added that he “hopes” there’s a chance to expand upon that broadening of Carrie’s world in the future.

Perhaps with Flanagan still plugging away at bringing The Dark Tower to screen, Carrie will become a part of that universe. Check out the video above for more from Flanagan and others about Carrie!

Carrie, Streaming Now, Prime Video

– Reporting by Erin Maxwell