The works of Stephen King are a perfect haven for trivia. The author’s pop culture impact is so massive that most people have a shot at getting questions right… but his body of work between books and adaptations is also so vast that there are plenty of opportunities to stump them. It’s perfect game show fodder, and Jeopardy! took advantage this week with a full category dedicated to King.
A quick round of Jeopardy!-sourced trivia leads this edition of The King Beat, but it is one of many subjects in this jam-packed, which also includes an update on the upcoming Carrie TV series, my interviews with Mike Flanagan and the cast of The Life Of Chuck, and a mini, spoiler-free review of Stephen King’s latest novel, Never Flinch, which I just finished reading a couple days ago. There’s a lot to digest, so let’s dig in!
Can You Answer All Of The Questions From The ‘Stephen King’ Category On Jeopardy This Past Tuesday?
first round categories was “Stephen King.”
J! Archive), and while they don’t require what I would deem expert-level knowledge of King’s books and movies, I think all of you will have fun trying to provide the “questions.”
- $200 – The title entity of “It” appears in many different forms, including as Pennywise, one of these circus performers
- $400 – The cat brought back to life in this novel is called Church, short for Winston Churchill
- $600 – In a story set in Nebraska, an evil being is called “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”, “Rows” referring to rows & rows of this
- $800 – Pyrokinetic powers are an attribute of Charlie McGee, a daughter of govt. test subjects & this book’s title character
- $1000 – 2 stories from this Stephen King collection were turned into an Anthony Hopkins movie
Did any of them stump you? Scroll down for the Answer Key toward the bottom of this feature!
Mike Flanagan’s Carrie series for Prime Video doesn’t have a premiere date yet, it has now officially started production.
Flanagan has been an extremely busy dude of late given that he has been doing the press tour for The Life Of Chuck, but that seemingly hasn’t slowed the development of Carrie, and now that the filmmaker’s latest Stephen King movie is now playing in theaters across the country, he has begun shooting his first King TV show. He made the announcement via a traditional clapperboard photo that he posted on his personal Instagram page:
Mike Flanagan obviously has extensive history on the small screen, having made The Haunting Of Hill House, The Haunting Of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club, and The Fall Of The House Of Usher, but to date, all of his Stephen King adaptations (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep and The Life Of Chuck) have been features. It will be his first opportunity to really expand on source material instead of reining it in and making necessary cuts to fit a traditional runtime, and I’m fascinated to see what he does with the challenge.
Carrie stars Summer H. Howell as the titular role, and playing key teen characters will be Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Arthur Conti as Billy, and Joel Oulette as Tommy. Amber Midthunder is playing gym teacher Miss Desjardin, and the rest of the cast is filled with FlanaFamily regulars, including Samantha Sloyan (as the psychotic Margaret White), Matthew Lillard (as Principal Grayle), Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Katee Sackhoff, Michael Trucco, Crystal Balint, and Danielle Klaudt.
Obviously, I plan to cover Carrie here on The King Beat quite a bit in the coming months, so stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for a wide variety of news and updates about the project.
Mike Flanagan Is Super Excited About 2025’s Epic Year Of Stephen King Adaptations, And There Is One Title In Particular That Intrigues Him” and “Mark Hamill Admits He ‘Almost Forgot’ He Made A Stephen King Movie Prior To The Life Of Chuck And The Long Walk” – were sourced from my Life Of Chuck interviews, but now, thanks to CinemaBlend’s brilliant video team, you can get the full experience of my conversations with writer/director Mike Flanagan and stars Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Karen Gillan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kate Siegel, Benjamin Pajak and Matthew Lillard.
If you haven’t yet seen The Life Of Chuck, you are missing out on one of the most powerful, wonderful cinematic experiences of the year. The movie is currently playing in theaters nationwide, and you can check for locations near you via the film’s official website.
Stephen King Mini-Book Review: Never Flinch
As a result of struggling to get through the slog that is reading the second half of Insomnia by Stephen King for the first time, I wasn’t able to crack open my hardcover copy of Never Flinch on day one of the novel’s release as I had hoped (I’m a “one book at a time reader”). After a slight delay, however, I can now say that I have finished King’s latest mystery, and I can be counted as a satisfied Constant Reader… with a couple of reservations.
The book sees the wonderful detective Holly Gibney (a much more mature, self-assured version of the protagonist following her experiences in 2023’s Holly) juggling a pair of cases that prove equally thrilling and dark: her hometown of Buckeye City, Ohio is terrorized by a serial killer who is murdering surrogates for jurors who wrongfully convicted an innocent man who was killed in prison; and she is hired as a bodyguard on the speaking tour of a feminist firebrand who is being stalked by a dangerous anti-abortion activist.
King takes divergent approaches with the two antagonists while still bringing us intimately into their stories – shrouding the former in anonymity while being more open with the intentions of the latter – and the narratives each succeed based on the depths of the characters and their complex motivations. The author leans on themes that are very familiar to longtime fans, namely addiction and rehabilitation, but it continues to never feel stale because it’s King writing what he knows and there is an organic exploration of trading compulsions/dependencies.
The hitch in Never Flinch concerns the use of the legacy characters from Holly’s inner circle – specifically Barbara Robinson. Her prominent appearance in Holly is a highlight of that book, as I can appreciate King leaning into his affection for poetry while developing an author-centric sibling rivalry with her brother, Jerome, but the part she plays in this new novel is simply too big a swing.
I can follow along when it turns out that Barbara’s writing mentor is a colleague to the cannibal professors her friend is investigating, but it’s harder to swallow that a beloved recording artist arrives in town and happens to be so infatuated with her poetry that she not only asks her to collaborate on a song, but ask that Barbara get on stage of the local arena perform it (ultimately putting a target on her back in one of Holly’s cases).
I’d call it the weakest of the post-Bill Hodges trilogy Holly Gibney books thus far (including The Outsider, the novella “If It Bleeds,” and Holly), but that’s more a reflection of my affection for the other stories than a negative take on Never Flinch. It’s a terrific, compelling read, and as ever, I am hungry for more.
Jeopardy! Answer Key
As promised, here are the “questions” to the “answers” in the Stephen King Jeopardy! category:
- $200 – What is a clown?
- $400 – What is Pet Sematary?
- $600 – What is corn?
- $800 – What Is Firestarter?
- $1000 – What Is Hearts In Atlantis?
That does it for this week’s King Beat, but the constant flow of news and updates about Stephen King books, movies, TV and more never stops, and so why should this column? I’ll be back here on CinemaBlend next Thursday with another new roundup of all the biggest stories and other goodies, so be on the lookout.