The Shining Got A Secret Spinoff In This 10/10 Stephen King TV Show

Published Sep 20, 2026, 10:30 AM EDT

Adrienne Tyler is a movies & TV features writer, with a focus on horror. She has written for Netflix, FanSided, & more. She was a regular guest on the Netfreaks podcast and was a YouTuber at some point. Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once.

The Shining is one of the most famous Stephen King stories, famously adapted to film by Stanley Kubrick, and it got a secret spinoff in one of the best and most underrated Stephen King shows of all time. The works of Stephen King have served as inspiration for many artists across different types of media, and many of them have been adapted to film or TV, sometimes even to both. Novels like Carrie, It, and Salem’s Lot have been adapted more than once, and an often forgotten member of that list is The Shining.

Published in 1977, The Shining introduced the world to the Torrance family: father Jack, mother Wendy, and son Danny. The Torrances go through unbelievable horrors when they move into the Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies after Jack takes a job there as the off-season caretaker. The evil forces at the Overlook bring out the darkest sides and secrets of the family, in one of King’s most notable psychological and supernatural horror stories. The Shining got a sequel novel, Doctor Sleep, in 2013, adapted to film in 2019, but it also has a secret TV spinoff.

The Shining got a TV adaptation in 1997, a lot more faithful to the novel than Kubrick’s movie, but in 2018, it got a secret spinoff in Castle Rock. Created by Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason, Castle Rock ran for two seasons on Hulu, with each season covering a different story. Season 1 of Castle Rock featured characters from King’s stories as well as new ones, including Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy), a relative of The Shining’s infamous family.

Castle Rock Season 1 Introduced Jack Torrance's Niece

Castle Rock is unlike any other Stephen King TV show as it’s not an adaptation of a story by the horror master, instead being inspired by the world of King and its many characters. Castle Rock season 1, then, tells the story of Henry Deaver (André Holland), a criminal attorney who returns to his hometown of Castle Rock after a disturbing discovery at Shawshank State Penitentiary: a prisoner, referred to as “The Kid” (Bill Skarsgård), who was kept in a secret, underground cell for 27 years.

The Kid didn’t age in all those years, and there are no records of his time at Shawshank, and on top of that, strange things begin to happen around him and later in other parts of town. Season 1 of Castle Rock also features Jackie Torrance (Jane Levy), the niece of The Shining’s Jack. Jackie is obsessed with death and the obscure history of Castle Rock, to the point where she considers herself the town’s historian. Jackie’s morbid obsession is such that she changed her name from Diane to Jackie to honor her uncle’s memory and to rebel against her parents.

Jackie is the owner of Sweet Chariot Taxi company, and staying true to her strange interests, she tries to ask Henry about his mysterious disappearance when he was young and later takes the Kid on a ride. Jackie’s family lineage comes out when she suspects the owners of a new bed and breakfast, Gordon and Lilith, are hiding something after noticing trash bags and bloodstained objects, even though she’s into the B&B’s murder-themed concept.

Jackie’s suspicions turn out to be correct, and she stops Gordon from trying to kill Henry. Jackie takes an axe and kills Gordon, later admitting to Henry that she didn’t feel like herself when she did so. Through this, Castle Rock implies that Jackie could repeat the actions of her uncle if there was a trigger for it, and at the end of season 1, Jackie is writing a book about her experience killing Gordon titled Overlooked, and shares her plans to go on a trip to the west.

Unfortunately, as Castle Rock season 2 tells a completely different story (that, by the way, serves as a prequel to Misery), Jackie’s journey is left inconclusive, right when the most exciting chapter of it was about to begin, leaving it to the imagination of viewers.

Is Castle Rock A Canon Stephen King TV Show?

Castle Rock’s Jackie Torrance is an exciting and interesting addition to the lore of The Shining, but given its origin, it raises the question of whether it could be canon. As mentioned above, Castle Rock is based on King’s universe and characters, but it’s not a creation of King, nor was he involved in the show’s writing (though he did serve as executive producer). The events of Castle Rock also clash with some novels thanks to characters like Alan Pangborn and the Merrills, which makes the show non-canon.

However, that doesn’t change that Castle Rock is a great complement to the universe of Stephen King. The introduction of Jackie Torrance raises questions about whether “the shine” and the inner demons that haunted Jack could run in the family, and season 2’s events explain a bit more about Annie Wilkes’ (Lizzy Caplan) past and why she does what she does in Misery. Castle Rock might not be canon, but it’s still one of the best Stephen King TV shows ever made.