The list of upcoming Stephen King adaptations has grown at a rapid rate in recent years, thankfully with the bulk of the announced projects making it through the full production cycle. One such live-action imagining that’s long-confounded Hollywood has been King and Peter Straub’s 1984 bestseller The Talisman, though hopes went sky-high in 2021 when Amblin Entertainment partnered with Netflix and Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer to craft a Talisman streaming series. Unfortunately, it looks like audiences won’t be visiting Arcadia Beach just yet.
As Stranger Things’ final season wraps up the horrors in Hawkins, the Duffer brothers have been answering myriad questions about the Upside Down (CinemaBlend’s included), but it’s been a while since they’d addressed making the jaunt to The Territories with Jack Sawyer for The Talisman. Comic Book Resources got the latest from the sibling creatives, who shared the rather tragic update that the previously announced adaptation is no longer happening as is. But it sounds like not all hope has been dashed, possibly. As Ross Duffer put it:
Sadly, Talisman is no longer at Netflix, so we’re not involved.
Ross Duffer
That comment was quickly followed by one from the other brother:
I think it was probably naive of us to think we could break The Talisman.
Matt Duffer
Ross Duffer then addressed the fact that this definitely isn’t the first time an attempt to get a Talisman adaptation off the ground has come up short. As he put it:
When I interned…back in college at Kennedy Marshall, I remember reading, I think it was a movie script for Talisman. So it’s been in development forever, so I’m sorry that we were not the ones to break the curse.
Ross Duffer
Similar to The Dark Tower, which has also long perplexed writers and directors aiming to bring that epic tale to life in full, The Talisman isn’t the usual cup of horror tea that either King or Straub are known for, and the lengthy first novel skews far more darkly fantastical. There’s something about this side of King’s imagination that’s harder to bring from the page to the screen than more visceral realism.
Why There’s Still Hope For The Talisman TV Show (Or Movie)
Something that Stephen King fanatics might know, but the general public wouldn’t, is that Amblin Entertainment’s connection with The Talisman goes back to 1982, when Steven Spielberg essentially talked Universal Pictures into acquiring permanent rights to the novel, as opposed to more traditional licensing windows. So for the past 40+ years, every time a Talisman feature script was written, or when a TNT miniseries adaptation went into development in 2006, Spielberg has always been behind the scenes trying to make the passion project happen.
As such, if the Duffer brothers say they aren’t involved anymore, and that it isn’t happening at Netflix anymore, neither of those updates indicates a permanent reversal of fortune. It just means Amblin’s previous deal with Netflix and the Duffers expired, allowing for another iteration to kick up dust elsewhere. Which is where things get even more potentially interesting.
When announced back in 2021, this latest Talisman adaptation also notably had Paramount Television Studios on board. It’s currently unclear whether or not Paramount is still on board in any capacity, especially since the game-changing merger with Skydance happened in the meantime. But if that studio still is in the mix, then it’s entirely possible that the Duffer brothers could get right back on board as executive producers.
After all, it was just in August when news broke that Matt and Ross Duffer’s Netflix deal was ending in place of a new partnership with Paramount, with the studio shift being prompted by the brothers’ goal of directing theatrical features. Obviously this now-defunct attempt was for a series and not a film, but that wouldn’t preclude their involvement. In fact, it might just shift the approach back to the feature side if they’re in control again.
For now, it’s hard to know where things will end up, especially as the final victory lap for Stranger Things has yet to conclude. Hopefully more will come to light once Vecna and his demo-minions are vanquished for good.
