Over the last year, Trouble City has become your go-to source for the latest news about the CBS All Access adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand. I have made my love and devotion to the source material no secret and have jumped at any opportunity to talk about the production. I see my work as not only a journalistic pursuit but also a civic duty, dammit.
Yes, I am very excited about the 10-episode series, which is still set to be released late 2020. Do I have my hesitations? Yup, I sure do. But my cautious optimism outweighs my pessimism. I cannot wait to see what Josh Boone and his team have come up with.
It’s been a weird time to have a “Stephen King’s The Stand” Google Alert because there has been a lot of news stories about the book due to the coronavirus. The book has popped up on many lists and comparisons between the novel’s plot and the real world have been made repeatedly. Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has piqued interest in King’s masterwork.
But will the COVID-19 pandemic also affect the mini-series? Well, maybe. Buried in a piece on The Times about how movies and TV are handling the current global outbreak is this bit of news regarding our beloved Stand:
“American writers are already reworking dialogue for future shows to reflect the new reality. An upcoming 10-episode CBS series called The Stand, based on Stephen King’s 1978 saga about a weaponised influenza virus that leaves only a few survivors to build a new world, is being revised to incorporate lessons learnt from the current pandemic.”
Revised? Incorporate lessons learnt? What the hell does that mean? Well, we don’t know because The Times doesn’t cite a source or give us more details but apparently they have heard that The Stand is being tweaked in post-production to update itself for a post-COVID world.
I am not really sure how true this is, or the extent of any revisions. But I have wondered for some time how the coronavirus would impact The Stand. Part of me has assumed that interest in the mini-series would be higher because of our current emergency status. And another part of me has been concerned that CBS would delay the project’s release due to fear of being too insensitive. I have long assumed that things could be modified one way or another because of the coronavirus situation.
I doubt there is much to fear here. I don’t know what sort of reshaping can be done to The Stand considering filming is done. I don’t doubt that there could be some minor dialogue or references to COVID-19 or SARS or Swine Flu or any virus from the modern age inserted. Do I think that CBS is planning to radically remodel the series? No, no I do not.
But these proposed possible changes to The Stand make you wonder when cinema and television will start to incorporate the current pandemic. This is a crisis the size and impact of which has not been since 9/11. And like 9/11, it is unfathomable to assume that COVID-19 won’t eventually make its way into pop culture. It will affect TV shows and movies in ways that will be both long-lasting and major.