The new CBS All Access limited series The Stand may, for many viewers, feel a bit eerily of the moment. The series, an adaptation of Stephen King’s epic novel of the same name, sees humanity ravaged by a terrifying pandemic and while the story isn’t simply about the pandemic — there’s a good versus evil component that is the real story — it’s release during the COVID-19 pandemic is a bit eerie. However, for star Greg Kinnear, The Stand is all about the characters and it’s while the story has stood the test of time.
Speaking with ComicBook.com, Kinnear was asked if there were any other King adaptations he’d like to be a part of and while it’s clear he’s a fan of the author, he spoke a bit about the strength of the story The Stand tells that lets it remain both popular and relevant today.
“I don’t think there’s honestly a Stephen King story that wouldn’t be great in terms of a storytelling and motion picture medium.” Kinnear said. “I mean, he tells good stories, many of them are high concept, very high concept at times. But as I say, I think his strength lies in characters. You know, you ultimately live or die based upon whether or not you believe the people who are interacting in these stories and I think the success of The Stand which really has stood the test of time. It’s still read with a pretty big regularity by a younger generation year after year after year. It’s the characters and how they, what they’re searching for, what they’re afraid of, what they’re willing to stand up for. Those themes are there. They’ve been telling these back since Shakespeare. I mean, he captures stories in great ways, but he’s always true to character.”
That character focus is something that series executive producer Benjamin Cavell commented on as well.
“The fact is for both of us, the book’s not really about a pandemic,” Cavell said. “I mean, there is a pandemic in the book and it kind of creates the circumstances for an empty world, you know, across which our characters can walk to Mordor, but you know the story is not the story of a pandemic. And that’s a big part of why we are telling this in a nonlinear way, that we didn’t want to just go through this very linear story in which the first three episodes are all about a pandemic and the kind of death of the world. I mean, this book is about what comes after and this elemental struggle between good and evil. And that was going to be the story we were telling whether there was a pandemic or not in the real world.”
The first two episodes of The Stand are now streaming on CBS All Access. New episodes arrive every Thursday.