CBS All Access sets December premiere date for The Stand mini-series

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

I've been anxiously waiting for the day when CBS All Access would let us know when they're going to start releasing episodes of the new mini-series adaptation of Stephen King's epic novel The Stand, and that day has now arrived. The streaming service has announced that the first episode of the series will premiere on December 17th.

The nine episodes of the series will be released on a weekly basis, arriving on CBS All Access every Thursday.

King's novel (which you can buy HERE) has the following synopsis: 

This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides — or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail — and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.

The mini-series stars Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abagail, Alexander Skarsgård as Randall Flagg, James Marsden as Stu Redman, Odessa Young as Frannie Goldsmith, Amber Heard as Nadine Cross, Greg Kinnear as Glen Bateman, Henry Zaga as Nick Andros, Brad William Henke as Tom Cullen, Katherine McNamara as Julie Lawry, Hamish Linklater as Dr. Ellis, Eion Bailey as Teddy Weizak, Daniel Sunjata as Cobb, Fiona Dourif as the Rat Woman, Owen Teague as Harold Lauder, Nat Wolff as Lloyd Henreid, Jovan Adepo as Larry Underwood, and Heather Graham as Rita Blakemoor, with Natalie Martinez and Marilyn Manson in unspecified roles.

Scripts for the episodes were written by Josh Boone, Benjamin Cavell, Jill Killington, and King's son Owen King. Stephen King has also written a new ending for the story that will go beyond the events of the book and make up a substantial part of the final episode. Boone directed the first and last episodes.

The Stand was produced by CBS Television Studios. Boone and Cavell executive produced with Taylor Elmore, Will Weiske, Roy Lee, Jimmy Miller, and Richard P. Rubinstein. Will Weiske and Miri Yoon served as co-executive producers, and Jake Braver, Stephen Welke, Knate Lee, Jill Killington, and Owen King earned producer credits. 

Cavell was also the showrunner, and had this to say about the mini-series: 

During the two years we spent making The Stand, we all felt the responsibility of adapting what may be the most beloved work of one of the world’s most beloved storytellers, but none of us could have imagined that Stephen King’s 40-year-old masterpiece about a global pandemic would come to be so eerily relevant. We’re honored to tell this sprawling, epic story, including a new coda that Stephen King has wanted to add for decades. We’re so proud of this show and its attempt to find meaning and hope in the most uncertain of times. We can’t wait to share it with the world."

This is the second mini-series adaptation of The Stand; the previous one was directed by Mick Garris and aired in 1994. (You can pick up a copy of that mini-series HERE.)