Every 2025 Stephen King Movie And TV Adaptation, Ranked

Some years are better than others. That's just the way it works. For Stephen King fans, at least, 2025 was definitely one of the good ones — perhaps the best one in recent memory.  

Even by the extremely productive and highly adapted author's standards, the bygone calendar year was absolutely stacked with live-action projects based on his work. No fewer than five King-adjacent movies and TV shows saw the light of day in 2025, and not a single one of them was particularly bad. In fact, at least a couple of them have a very decent shot at securing a spot among the best Stephen King adaptations out there. 

Still, even though some of them stand head and shoulders over the others, even the very worst among the 2025 King adaptations have their own charms. Let's take a moment to delve into each and every one of these five projects, and determine how they stack against each other. 

Based on King's 2019 book of the same name,"The Institute" focuses on a group of kids with special abilities, all of whom have been effectively kidnapped by a mysterious organization that may or may not be instrumental in holding the world together. As is to be expected, things get very ominous, very soon.

There have been many years with the kind of Stephen King drought that would have allowed "The Institute" to easily reign supreme on a list like this. However, the MGM+ series had the severe misfortune to drop in 2025, a year that has King fans eating better than usual when it comes to live-action adaptations. That's why "The Institute" landing dead last on the list of 2025 King adaptations doesn't necessarily mean that it's an awful show by any stretch of imagination. In fact, "The Institute" has a decent 64% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it has already been renewed for season 2.

I think we all wanted to like "The Running Man" way more than we actually ended up enjoying it. Stephen King himself hyped the remake's completely new ending to high heaven. Edgar Wright could have done with a major "Three Flavors Cornetto"-level win. Every film buff and their aunt's dog wants the unreasonably charming Glen Powell to be the biggest thing since sliced bread. Yet, something went wrong. Not necessarily badly — just wrong enough to let us down ever so little. 

Well, perhaps "wrong" is an inaccurate word altogether. The thing is, "The Running Man" isn't a bad movie, per se. It's just lukewarm. Sure, it has a fantastic cast, a cool premise, a prominent Arnold Schwarzenegger "cameo" reference that nods at the Austrian Oak's hilariously inaccurate but oh-so-entertaining 1987 adaptation, and even a pretty clever spin on the original novel's frankly unadaptable ending. Still, there's something missing. 

There's a decent chance that "The Running Man" will redeem itself during its streaming era. After all, its cast — Powell in particular — is plenty charming, and the story it tells has no shortage of tension and big swings. As for whether it'll grow into the kind of cult classic many of Wright's previous works have, or even surpass the 1987 version in the zeitgeist ... well, that remains to be seen. I'd like history to prove me wrong eventually, but for now, "The Running Man" is unfit to challenge for the spot of the best King adaptation of 2025. 

Before the announcement that Osgood Perkins ("I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House," "Longlegs") was working on an adaptation of Stephen King's "The Monkey" dropped, even reasonably devoted Stephen King fans could have been forgiven for forgetting that the short story even existed. Yet, propelled by the rising filmmaker's cred, this darkly entertaining tale about a monkey toy that spells doom to those who hear it play made its way to the big screen without issue. 

Admittedly, Perkins' "Longlegs" follow-up can't quite live up to the hype. Even so, it's worth keeping in mind that the post-"Longlegs" hype was pretty high ... and that "The Monkey" isn't particularly interested in being a highbrow auteur movie. Instead, it wraps its tension in the inherently comedic moments that come when the villain of the piece is grinning drummer monkey figure that rains doom on those around it with incredibly inventive Rube Goldberg machines of death. It's "Final Destination" stuff with an added creepshow factor — a movie that not only understands the inherent ridiculousness of its premise, but embraces it with both arms. 

Is "The Monkey" a good movie in the sense that the best horror movies in history are good movies? Absolutely not. However, it manages to tap into a very specific source of entertaining absurdity, and for a movie like this, that's more than enough. 

"It: Welcome to Derry" is arguably the biggest sufferer in this packed year of Stephen King adaptations. On pretty much any year that doesn't involve the rare King banger of the "Doctor Sleep" variety, the show would have easily dominated this list — but here we are, with Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) scowling at second place.

Thing is, "It: Welcome to Derry" is a surprisingly scary and gruesome prequel series, and one of the two truly exceptional King adaptations that just so happened to come out in the same year. It's also one of the wildest takes on King's larger universe so far. The prequel offshoot of Andy Mushchietti's "It" movies uses existing bits and pieces from King's "It" mythology, but remixes and reimagines them to add and explain hitherto mysterious things about the titular monster ... including a deep dive into the history of its Pennywise the Dancing Clown form.

Looking at the way "It: Welcome to Derry" expands on the "It" lore, ties it to the larger King mythos, and shows absolutely no mercy to any human character whatsoever, it's easy to hope that Muschietti and company will get the opportunity to bring their planned three-season arc to the finish line. Based on the carnage of season 1, who knows how far the show is willing to push things going forward? 

"The Long Walk" is one of Stephen King's bleakest and most ruthless stories, and it doesn't need any monsters or magic for its visceral terror, either. The 1979 novel focuses entirely on a dystopian competition where 50 boys engage in a deadly reality TV competition: Walk non-stop until only one competitor remains alive.

This dark premise requires a lot from Francis Lawrence's direction, JT Mollner's script, and the actors. Their combined task to convey the true stakes and terror of this ultimate competition is daunting, especially since the events unfold at a comparatively leisurely walking pace. Fortunately, everyone involved are on top of their respective tasks. Out of the actors, Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson shine as central walkers Ray Garraty and Peter McVries, and Mark Hamill gets to flex his villain chops as the evil Major who presides over the competition. 

Admittedly, the survival thriller vibe of "The Long Walk" doesn't make for the most obviously Stephen King movie out there. Then again, many of the best adaptations of his more grounded work — think films like Frank Darabont's "The Shawshank Redemption" and Rob Reiner's "Stand by Me" — manage to capture something that goes above and beyond the source material while still remaining faithful to the task. In fact, "The Long Walk" producer Roy Lee has told The Hollywood Reporter that he feels the movie is primed to become a future King cornerstone work: 

"It made $65 million on a $20 million budget, so it didn't lose money. It didn't blow up, but I feel like it's going to be similar to the way that 'The Shawshank Redemption' is considered now. 'The Long Walk' is, in a decade or so, going to be considered a classic."