( © Warner Bros. Pictures)

First Trailer for Sequel to Stephen King's 'The Shining', 'Doctor Sleep', Teases More Spookiness For the Torrence Family!

Written by Katie Marzullo. Published: June 13 2019

 

Ever since we first got wind of this project more than a year ago, we’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Doctor Sleep, the much-anticipated sequel to Stephen King’s classicThe Shining, starring Ewan McGregor as a grown-up Danny Torrence, struggling with his demons and his traumatic memories of the past.

 

Now, Warner Bros. has released the first trailer, and I gotta say, it definitely has Stephen King written all over it. Oddly, it’s gotStanley Kubrick written all over it too…

 

 

 

Why is that “odd”, you ask? Well, here’s the thing – King famously despised Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of his horror novel, despite the fact that it is now considered a classic by audiences and critics alike. He hated it so much, in fact, that he made his own adaptation in 1997! Kubrick’s version wasn’t exactly shy about taking liberties with King’s source material, which was no doubt the primary cause of King’s consternation. But if you watch the trailer forDoctor Sleep, you’ll notice tons of references to and clips of Kubrick’s film sprinkled throughout. So it begs the question – is Doctor Sleep an adaptation of King’s book, or a sequel to Kubrick’s film?

 

Perhaps the latter, as it doesn’t appear that King himself has been heavily involved in the project. He’s listed as an executive producer, but that’s kind of a courtesy title usually given to authors whose works are adapted, even when said adaptation strays considerably from the source material (see: “Game of Thrones”, who continued to list author George R.R. Martin as an executive producer in the credits right up to the very end even though he’s had nothing to do with the show since Season 4). Of course, they would not have been able to make this film in the first place without King’s approval, so maybe he’s finally made peace with Kubrick’s film after all. However, trying to be both a sequel and an adaptation poses some issues with canon, as the Kubrick film made some significant changes from the book that would impact a direct sequel (like, for instance, the status of the character Dick Hallorann, who died in the film but is alive in the books and plays a key role in King's Doctor Sleep). So it remains to be seen which canon Doctor Sleep will ultimately follow -- King's or Kubrick's.

 

Either way,Doctor Sleep looks to be just as creepy and horrifying as the original. Director Mike Flanagan is no stranger to the genre, nor to Stephen King adaptations – he brought King’s novel Gerald’s Game to Netflix in 2017, plus he directed the pilot episode of the hugely successful Netflix series “The Haunting of Hill House”. He looks to bring those same sensibilities to this tale of grown-up Danny Torrence trying to come to terms both with his powers and with what happened that fateful winter at the Overlook Hotel so many years ago… Heeeerrrre’s DANNY!

 

Doctor Sleep, which also stars Rebecca Ferguson,Jacob Tremblay, and "Westworld"'s Zahn McClarnon, hits theatres on November 8.