Stephen King's Carrie & The Dark Tower Universe Connection Confirmed By Mike Flanagan

Published Oct 7, 2026, 8:36 AM EDT

Nick Bythrow is a Lead Writer for ScreenRant. He has been writing for the site since September 2022. He graduated from Hampshire College in 2022, where he triple majored in Journalism, Communications, and Media Studies. When he's not writing about TV and movies for ScreenRant and his blog, Frayed Branches, Nick is penning speculative fiction and poetry on Amazon. He lives outside Boston, Massachusetts.

The connection between Stephen King's Carrie and The Dark Tower universe has been confirmed.

Mike Flanagan, the creator of the new Carrie TV show, has explained how the two properties are tied together. King's debut 1974 novel, Carrie, has been a classic part of the king of horror's lineup, resonating even to this day thanks to Flanagan's new TV series on Prime Video. However, it's not the only King series Flanagan is working on. He's also set to adapt The Dark Tower series, a fantasy Western epic that's not only King's magnum opus, but the connective tissue between all his stories.

Speaking with TV Insider about Carrie, Flanagan confirmed the connection between both Carrie and The Dark Tower, confirming there are connections between the two stories in the sense of a wider universe. He explained that, in terms of its placement, he believes the TV show does take place "on a certain level of the Tower," and that there's an opportunity for expansion that could place them both in the same universe more succinctly in the future.

Check out what Flanagan had to say below:

The beautiful thing about Stephen King is that the connections between the universe that he’s built are some of the most fun, as lovers of Stephen King, that you get to make those connections. I do think this all exists on a certain level of the Tower, and Carrie’s place in that bigger world is something he hints at very much in the book. It was really exciting for us to be able to do that in practice and to really go into that.

Flanagan's statement mirrors the way King approaches his multiverse in novel form. The Dark Tower is a physical place held together by Beams, converging at the center of all realities. The Tower is the connective tissue between all of King's work, meaning that, despite having no direct connections to it, Carrie very much takes place in the same set of worlds as all his other stories. Flanagan's statement seems to reflect this in terms of the TV show, with the story of his series easily placeable within the Tower, even without mentioning it directly.

Credit: Robert Falconer/Prime Video

As of writing, it's unclear if the story of Carrie could lead to connections to Flanagan's planned Dark Tower TV show. Both are produced under Amazon MGM Studios, and given Flanagan's positive statement about the idea of a connection, it's not impossible that he could be building a shared universe from his adaptations. However, the biggest hurdle right now is rights issues, since the movie and TV show rights to King's work are spread across various studios — much like a multiverse.

Still, The Dark Tower's reality-connecting narrative opens the door for much more, even if it's unclear right now what that would look like. Flanagan envisions Carrie as a multi-season story that goes beyond the content of the original novel, meaning there's ample room for the show to find a more direct connection to his planned adaptation. Based on his statement, it's clear his vision of the series' future could puzzle piece its way into The Dark Tower universe.

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With the show finally out today, October 7, 2026, viewers now have an opportunity to observe how the series could potentially tie into The Dark Tower, depending on Flanagan's approach. His statement about Carrie's placement in the Tower means that, even if it doesn't directly connect to the larger fantasy Western epic, it still has a vital place in the wider universe that could be expanded upon, depending on how Flanagan approaches King's work going forward.

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  Summer H. Howell

  Carrie White

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  Samantha Sloyan

  Margaret White

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  Siena Agudong

  Sue Snell

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  Alison Thornton

  Chris Hargensen