Benjamin Cavell, executive producer of The Stand TV show, has revealed how Randal Flagg’s powers are different from Stephen King’s book.
Randal Flagg, aka “Walter o’Dim”, aka “The Man in Black”, is one Stephen King’s most notorious villains. An arch-nemesis to The Dark Tower‘s Roland, Flagg has popped up in numerous other King horror stories, including The Stand.
While Matthew McConaughey played the villain in the lackluster Dark Tower adaptation, for the new TV version of The Stand, Alexander Skarsgård has the honours. Flagg’s demonic powers, however, don’t work quite the same way as in the book and producer Benjamin Cavell has told Variety all about it:
“[In the book] neither Flagg nor Mother Abagail really know the origin or the extent of their powers. It’s emblematic of the difference between them that Mother [Abagail] readily cops to this, whereas Flagg is always at great pains to appear to be on top of it all. [In the reboot] we still don’t know who gave him his power, but we see that it rises and falls based on the strength of his acolytes’ faith in him. Flagg is terrifying not only because of the things that make him more than human, but also because of his quintessentially human thirst for power and his apparent willingness to do anything to gain and maintain it.”
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No matter how his powers work in the show, it’s great to see this incarnation of the quasi-immortal sorcerer get another on-screen appearance. Let’s hope that the show can do the epic book justice.
Written by Josh Boone and Ben Cavell, The Stand is King’s apocalyptic vision of a world decimated by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil. The fate of mankind rests on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail (Whoopi Goldberg) and a handful of survivors. Their worst nightmares are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the Dark Man (Alexander Skarsgård).
Featuring in the star-studded cast of The Stand are James Marsden (Westworld) as Stu Redman, Amber Heard (Aquaman) as Nadine Cross, Odessa Young (Assassination Nation) as Frannie Goldsmith, and Henry Zaga (13 Reasons Why) as Nick Andros, Jovan Adepo (Overlord) as Larry Underwood, Owen Teague (Black Mirror) as Harold Lauder, Brad William Henke (Orange Is the New Black) as Tom Cullen, Daniel Sunjata (Rescue Me) as Cobb, Whoopi Goldberg (Sister Act) as Mother Abagail, Nat Wolff (The Fault in Our Stars) as Lloyd Henreid, Katherine McNamara (Arrow) as Julie Lawry, Eion Bailey (ER) as Teddy Weizak, Hamish Linklater (Legion) as Dr. Ellis, Greg Kinnear (House of Cards) as Glen Bateman, Heather Graham (Angie Tribeca) as Rita Blakemoor, and Alexander Skarsgard (Big Little Lies) as Randall Flagg.
