From Corrupt Clowns to Monstrous Monkeys, Here’s all of the Stephen King News You Missed [Derry Monthly]
Welcome to 2025. A new year, with new news but still the same Lilja, Dread Central’s Stephen King correspondent. Most news has been about Welcome to Derry. But first, we need to talk about the HUGE news that recently King dropped on us.
The Talisman 3 Is Coming!
On January 10, Stephen King posted the following message on Threads:
King is working on The Talisman 3. This is huge. People have been asking for this book for years and many thought it would never happen after Peter Straub’s passing. Some even thought he might collaborate with another author for it. Personally, I didn’t like that. It would feel so wrong to replace Straub.
Minutes after the first post King posted this message:
Here he basically tells us he’s using ideas that Straub sent him before he died, and The Talisman 3 will be a collaboration between them. Excellent I say!
King also tells us he can never be sure a book will be done until it is so there is a chance he won’t bring it to the finish line. But I feel comfortable that he will. My guess is that he has already written a big part of it, or at least he has an idea of how it will go. I’ll even go as far as to say that I think it might come out as early as 2026. But we’ll see. It’s good news anyhow and I’ve been smiling ever since we got it.
More Literary Stephen King News
But this is not all when it comes to news about King’s written stuff. I just read a new King short story. It’s called The Extra Hour and is included in Cemetery Dance #79. It’s a very interesting story that you might want to stay clear of if you have problems sleeping… It feels like classic King and I’m sure you will all love it.
The issue also contains, besides his column Stephen King News From The Dead Zone, an interview Bev Vincent did with King in which he talks about writing shorter stories. It also has an interview with Kris Webster, a super collector and one of the people behind the KingCon.
More News On Welcome To Derry
In an interview with Radio TU, Andy Muschietti revealed that he wants to do three seasons of Welcome to Derry, taking place 27 years apart, with the first season set in 1962, the second in 1935, and the third in 1908. Those of you who know your IT and Pennywise history know that Pennywise is back every 27 years. Muschietti also revealed that we can look forward to the first season premiering on HBO in September.
We also got an interview by Happy Sad Confused podcast with Bill Skarsgård where he talked about being back as Pennywise. In the interview, he called the series “pretty hardcore”. This is looking better and better.
Here Comes The Monkey
Osgood Perkins gave us a new clip from The Monkey as a Christmas present, and I must admit that I don’t know how to feel about this movie. It looks quite bloody but then it also looks like a comedy, thanks to the very up-tempo music in the trailer. It’s a strange mix and I’m hoping for a scary and bloody movie but I’m a bit afraid it’s more of a Scary Movie type of movie (Scary Movie is a comedy for those of you that don’t recognize the title). I guess we’ll know in about a month!
The Running Man Is On The Horizon
We also got the good news that The Running Man release has been bumped up two and a half weeks and will now be released on November 7, 2025. And we got some more casting news. We’ll see actor David Zayas (Angel Batista on Dexter) in the movie. His character’s name is Richard Manuel, same as the man posing as Richard Bachman on the cover of Thinner. How’s that for an Easter Eggs? We also know that Colman Domingo from Fear of the Walking Dead has been cast as the game show host Damon Killian, played memorably by Richard Dawson in the 1987 version of the film (which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger).
As you can see a lot is happening and besides keeping track on all of this, I got some interesting stuff to review in the last couple of days. Besides Cemetery Dance issue #79 I got a copy of Salem’s Lot 45th Anniversary Celebration, as well as TASCHEN’s book about The Shining. Look for reviews on those on Lilja’s Library. And for those that’s interested I’m also finishing up the last touches of my next book about King called Stephen King: (Odd) Anecdotes. The plan is to have it out in the fall.
So I got my plate full, but no matter what, make sure you read a book. Maybe The Talisman and Black House in preparation for The Talisman 3…
Until next time. Take care.
Categorized:Derry Monthly News
