Carrie Season 2 is heading into an entirely different direction after the expansion of Stephen King's franchise, and this decision is clearly divisive among fans. Prime Video's modern-day retelling of Carrie introduced many changes from the book, such as exploring social media cruelty, a more loving (but still cruel) version of Margaret White, and the inclusion of a mysterious female group with telekinetic powers. Carrie Season 1 ended with Carrie surviving the destructive events at Ewen High School and in Chamberlain, Maine, setting the stage for a vastly different second season.

Carrie was pulled from the rubble of her mother's house by Emaline and driven out of town toward other people with powers. Margaret White, who also possessed a weaker form of telekinesis, managed to save herself from the collapse only to be killed later by Kate Siegel's Adelaide, who managed to stop her heart after an interview. Adelaide's line to Margaret about "a lot of people have a little bit of Shine, and they don't even know it," effectively folds Carrie's telekinesis into the psychic framework of Stephen King's The Shining and Doctor Sleep. 

We're in a fantastic era, possibly the best yet, for Stephen King adaptations. The Outsider, the Mr. Mercedes series, The Long Walk, and both recent IT adaptations and IT - Welcome to Derry alone are exemplary adaptations of incredible quality. It's only fitting that Carrie, his first novel and arguably the best film adaptation he's yet received, is part of this tremendous wave. With Mike Flanagan behind it, Amazon Prime Video's Carrie series stands up to that high mark.

Mike Flanagan is perhaps our best current interpreter of King's oeuvre between the excellent Gerald's Game, the life-affirming The Life of Chuck, and the positively stellar Doctor Sleep, based on the sequel novel to The Shining. Flanagan has shown a knack for finding the human core inside these horror worlds without losing true terror, a recipe for brilliance that fueled The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass to all-time-great status.

The series is an excellent adaptation that expands the world of King's first novel in ways that are consistent with his other works. It's tense, beautifully shot, and Summer H. Howell has excellent range, playing Carrie with likable innocence and menacing power with equal skill. It's a stellar adaptation, finding new layers in a time-honored work.

Strong Character Work Adds New Layers To A Well-Known Tale

Coven Academy lead star Malina Weissman and showrunner Tim Federle shared their positive response to a possible Season 2 renewal following the show's Disney+ premiere. Created by Tim Federle, Coven Academy is a teen supernatural drama that follows Briar Roberts, a stubborn New Yorker played by Malina Weissman, who arrives at an elite magic boarding school in New Orleans and discovers she is a witch. She has to navigate the world of coven politics, vampires, grief, and forbidden attraction while also trying to solve what happened to the murder of the woman who raised her. The series premiered on Freeform on October 1, 2026, as part of 31 Nights of Halloween, with the full season landing the next day on Disney+ and Hulu. 

As of writing, Disney has yet to announce a potential Season 2 for Coven Academy. Despite that, Coven Academy's debut season (via FlixPatrol) ranked the series No. 1 on Disney+'s U.S. chart, with the show being ahead of established titles including American Horror Story and The Drop: A Snowfall Saga. On the overall Disney+ chart, it placed third on the October 5 chart, only behind movies Toy Story 5 and Hocus Pocus. 

It's worth noting that those rankings are estimates drawn from public charts, not official Disney viewing hours or Nielsen figures. Still, leading the U.S. series charts in the days after a full-season drop indicates a stronger opening than most new live-action young adult shows get. 

Prime Video's Carrie introduced several characters with "the shine" in Season 1, and one of them is an unexpected addition that retconned Stephen King's novel. King's fiction universe introduced "the shine" as a broad, inherited psychic gift. The term was name-dropped in 1977's The Shining, three years after the events of Carrie. Stephen King's world established that people who have the shine are unusually sensitive to thoughts, emotions, places, and sometimes, the future. It's worth noting that the ability is not a single fixed power, meaning it can range from telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, psychometry, and astral projection. 

A few notable examples who have exhibited the shine in King's stories include Danny Torrance in The Shining and Dick Hallorann from IT: Welcome to Derry. Given that Carrie was Stephen King's first novel, the book never used the word, but many strongly believed that Carrie's telekinesis had long been read as an early version of the same phenomenon. 

Every Major Character With the Shine in 2026's Carrie Show 

The iconic British comedy game show, Taskmaster, is currently airing its 22nd series, which is insane—but completely well-deserved and deeply warranted given how beloved it is. For those who might not know, Taskmaster is a game show in which five celebrities, often comedians, are given bizarre challenges to compete against each other for points.

Taskmaster Series 22 features well-known comedians Chloe Petts, Isy Suttie, Matt Lucas, Nina Conti, and Richard Ayoade, all of whom must complete tasks set by the judges, Greg Davies and Alex Horne.

While there isn't a US version of Taskmaster, or at least one that lasted more than a season, there is something in the same realm: Dropout TV's Game Changer. The show lives up to its name. It's an improv comedy game show where the game the contestants play changes every episode—and none of them know the rules when it all starts.

NBC's Chicago Fire Season 15 marked a fresh start for all the characters after a game-changing cliffhanger finale last season. Chicago Fire has had its fair share of cast exits since the show's premiere in 2012. While Firehouse 51 is seen by many as a workplace family, the One Chicago series routinely cycles its cast to refresh the ensemble. Some of the notable exits over the years include Leslie Shay (Season 2), Peter Mills (Season 3), Battalion Chief Wallace Boden (Season 12), and, most recently, Sam Carver and Darren Ritter last season. Amid these exits, some of the original Chicago Fire cast members have remained since the pilot, including Taylor Kinney's Kelly Severide, David Eigenberg's Christopher Herrmann, Christian Stolte's Mouch, and Joe Miñoso's Joe Cruz. 

Chicago Fire's Season 14 finale ended on a cliffhanger after an emergency call sent the team to a fire at a storage facility. Most of Firehouse 51 went inside until a loud explosion cut the episode to black, leaving the fate of the core Chicago Fire firefighters hanging in the balance. Chicago Fire Season 15, Episode 1 confirmed the fates of everyone involved, including a shocker that led to big cast shakeups for the NBC series. 

Every Major Cast Member Joining & Leaving Chicago Fire Season 15 

An official Disney promo finally sealed the fate of Vampirina: Teenage Vampire, settling ambiguity about its Season 3 renewal chances. The supernatural musical sitcom began last year as a live-action take on Disney Jr.'s Vampirina, which stars the young vampire Vee Hauntley on her journey to become a pop star at a performing arts school, making friends, finding love, and fighting evil along the way. The six-episode Season 2 had a special marathon premiere on Disney Channel on October 6 before debuting for streaming on Disney+ on October 7.

Disney Channel Spain aired a new promo for Vampirina: Teenage Vampire Season 2 that confirms the supernatural musical sitcom won't return for Season 3, with the show seemingly ending after its recent six-episode run. The promo uses the term "Últimos episodios," which translates to "last episodes," confirming that Vampirina is, unfortunately, wrapping up after just two seasons.

Those who have already tuned in for Season 2 on Disney Channel or Disney+ (spoilers ahead!) won't be surprised to learn that that is it for Vampirina. The show concludes with Kenzi Richardson's Vee and Shaun Dixon's Eli saving the world together before overcoming the ancient prophecy that dictated vampires and Van Helsings stay apart, ending the story victorious, as a couple, and with their supernatural secrets announced to all of Wilson Hall.

Prime Video's Carrie introduced a new version of Carrie White and the bullies and friends she had to deal with in Ewen High School (and most of them have book-accurate ages). Mike Flanagan's eight-episode series adaptation of Stephen King's 1974 novel is a fresh take on the now-iconic story of Carrie White (Summer Howell). After the sudden death of her father, Ralph, Carrie is pushed out of the isolation of her home and into public high school in Chamberlain, Maine. 

Carrie's difficulty fitting in is placed front and center, mainly because she has been raised by her fiercely religious mother, Margaret, with almost no experience of ordinary teenage life. At a young age, Carrie is socially years behind her classmates, awkward, sheltered, and an easy target for bullies in Ewen High School. Carrie retains the core ensemble from Stephen King's novel, which includes Carrie, Margaret, Chris Hargensen, Sue Snell, Tommy Ross, Tina Blake, and Billy Nolan. 

Filming for Carrie ran in Vancouver from June 16 to October 17, 2025. The series premiered on Prime Video on October 7 (read more about The Direct's exclusive interview with the cast of Carrie here).

Apple TV+ hit Widow's Bay left viewers spellbound with its phenomenal first season, and fans have been on tenterhooks for the follow-up ever since. The acclaimed comedy-horror series was renewed for Season 2 in June, just days before the freshman finale. However, unfortunately for Widow's Bay devotees, the wait for the next chapter of Mayor Tom Loftis' story will be a long one. Season 1 ended with an unexpected twist, revealing Tom's son Evan as the true last living descendant of Richard Warren.

Speaking exclusively with The Direct while promoting his new Paramount+ animated series Golden Axe, Matthew Rhys, the show's lead and executive producer, addressed the plans for Season 2's production and release. Rhys confirmed that Widow's Bay Season 2 will "start shooting at the end of April 2027" and that 2028 is now the current targeted release window for the new episodes' premiere:

The Direct: Do you know when Season 2 starts filming, and is that something fans might be able to hope to see by the end of the year, or probably a little bit longer?

Kyle MacLachlan gave the clearest release window for Fallout Season 3 on Prime Video, and it lands later than many fans were hoping for. The anticipation surrounding Prime Video's Fallout Season 3 is high due to the unresolved story threads from the game-changing Season 2 finale. Some of the cliffhangers include Ghoul's search for his wife and child, the mysterious Colorado setting, and the ramifications of Lucy's confrontation with MacLachlan's character, Hank. Fallout Season 2 finished its run in February 2026, and many are already speculating about its return to Prime Video. Thankfully, a new update emerged online that would give fans an idea of when to tune in. 

At a recent public appearance and signing for his memoir at Barnes and Noble (via X), Kyle MacLachlan, who plays Hank MacLean, told a fan that Fallout Season 3 is still in production, with roughly a month left. 

The actor then teased that the upcoming season could premiere in "May or June [2027]," noting, "Fingers crossed that it's soon:"

Disney+'s Coven Academy was broken up into shorter episodes for reasons that the series' creator and a major Disney executive can't seem to agree on. Coven Academy is Disney's latest and greatest supernatural teen drama, following a trio of young witches-in-training in New Orleans. The series was originally ordered for Disney Channel, but ultimately aired its 10 episodes on Freeform across three Thursdays in October. Strangely, Coven Academy was structured differently for its bingeable release on Disney+ and Hulu, dividing the narrative into 21 much shorter chapters, which confused audiences. 

Coven Academy creator Tim Federle addressed why the Disney+ series' episodes are so short in a recent interview, although Disney Television Group President Craig Erwich seems to disagree with him about the reason. While Coven Academy's format is a major change for Disney+, Federle first explained that the whole team comes "traditional TV backgrounds:"

"It’s not quite a K-drama and it’s also not an hour long. I ran the show with Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer, who came up through 'Smallville' and 'Shadow Hunters'. So in some ways our writers’ room itself — and the directors we hired‚ it was an all-female-director lineup in season one; I directed the pilot and then it was all women after me — we all come from, frankly, traditional TV backgrounds."

Carrie is easily one of Stephen King's most famous stories. Originally written in 1974, the follows Carrie White, a reclusive young girl who enters high school, only to be met with ruthless bullying. Unbenownst to everyone around her, Carrie slowly discovers she has telekenitic powers—a realization that results in tragic results. 

The book was quickly adapted for the big screen in 1976, with Sissy Spacek as Carrie, and the film which quickly became an iconic horror classic. Then, twenty three years later in 1999, The Rage: Carrie 2 came out, a sequel focused on a new telekinetic teen.

In 2002, a straight-to-television adaptation of the film was released starring Angela Bettis. Another reboot was made in 2013, this time staring Chloë Grace Moretz. There was also a musical based on the story in 1988, though it became a notarious flop—not that it stopped it from being re-worked and released off broadway many years later, to slightly more success.

Friday the 13th is coming back to screens after an almost 16-year absence, this time focusing on the mother of the franchise, Pamela Voorhees. Many forget that Jason Voorhees' mother was the original killer in the horror franchise. Peacock's new Crystal Lake prequel series, which premieres on Peacock on October 15, 2026, will explore what led Pamela to become the iconic slasher that set off a string of summer camp murders. 

Ahead of Crystal Lake's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), The Direct participated in a roundtable interview with stars Linda Cardellini (Pamela) and Will Catlett (Levon), who shared more about how the series adds to the iconic Friday the 13th mythology. 

Cardellini, who is stepping into the role of Pamela Voorhees made famous by Betsy Palmer, shared that she "[couldn't] do what Betsy did," but that she instilled "echoes of her" in her portrayal. Cardellini also discussed working with Callum Vinson (who plays young Jason in the series) and her desire to establish their close mother-son dynamic. There's "a brightness to [Pam] that goes away" when her son inevitably dies, the actress shared.

HBO's Harry Potter Season 2 revealed a striking new logo at a Brazilian event ahead of Season 1's premiere later this year. HBO won't deliver the first season of its Wizarding World reboot, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, until this Christmas. But that hasn't stopped the Warner Bros. premium network from moving full steam ahead with its decade-long plan to adapt J.K. Rowling's seven novels in seven seasons, as Season 2, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, is now in production in the U.K. 

During a Warner Bros. Brazil event, HBO unveiled the first official logo for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (of course, in Brazilian Portuguese). Influencer Matheus Vale posted a shot of the Season 2 logo before a backdrop of the Hogwarts Express crossing the Glenfinnan Viaduct in the Scottish Highlands. 

If everything goes according to plan, Warner Bros. Discovery is about to be acquired by Paramount Skydance for $111 billion, and ahead of that deal, Warner Bros. officially wiped an entire brand that has been a part of Cartoon Network for years. With Warner Bros. Discovery and everything under its umbrella getting ready to become a part of Paramount, fans are witnessing multiple changes to the Warner Bros. Discovery brand, and will likely get to see even more changes being made after the acquisition goes through. One part of Warner Bros., which already made headlines in previous months and years, was affected in the worst way possible, as it seemingly is gone altogether.

As of September 25, Cartoon Network's preschool programming-focused brand, Cartoonito, has seemingly become nonexistent in the United States, as the brand's section has entirely disappeared from the Cartoon Network app, and all of the brand's shows have been grouped in with regular Cartoon Network shows and programming. As mentioned, this move comes as Paramount Skydance is in the process of officially and legally acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery, Cartoon Network's parent company.

For reference, Cartoon Network and Cartoonito were already heavily affected by the merger previously. When Cartoonito was first introduced in 2021, it was given an eight-hour block on Cartoon Network. Through the years, its block was heavily reduced a little at a time, until, in 2025, Cartoonito shows were only shown in 30-minute blocks without any branding.

Netflix's 2026 continuation of A Different World gave Jasmine Guy's Whitley Gilbert an updated look decades after the original 1987 sitcom premiered on NBC. Netflix's 10-episode continuation of A Different World, which premiered on September 24, brought back most of the original characters from the previous sitcom, most notably Kadeem Hardison's Dwayne Wayne, Darryl M. Bell's Ron Johnson, Cree Summer's Freddie Brooks, and Jasmine Guy's Whitley Gilbert-Wayne. The series shifted the focus to Deborah Wayne (Maleah Joi Moon), the free-spirited daughter of Whitley and Dwayne Wayne. 

In NBC's A Different World, Whitley was introduced as a spoiled Richmond Southern belle, known to everyone as a campus snob. Over six seasons, she evolved into the show's emotional anchor, showcasing her ability to learn to love beyond status after falling for math nerd Dwayne Wayne. Netflix's A Different World brought back Jasmine Guy's Whitley Gilbert-Wayne as a skincare entrepreneur who is now guiding her own daughter through freshman year at Hillman College. 

Why Jasmine Guy Looks Different In Netflix's 'A Different World' Series Reboot

The Walking Dead: Dead City has a "good shot" at being renewed for Season 4, according to the franchise's lead and executive producer, Scott M. Gimple. Dead City Season 3 stands as the New York spin-off's highest-rated entry yet on Rotten Tomatoes with a 100% critic score, ahead of Season 1's 80% and Season 2's 56%, making it something of a return to form for Maggie and Negan's story. As the season concluded in September, Dead City teased an expansion beyond Manhattan into other New York boroughs for Season 4 after Maggie accepted Negan, her late husband Glenn's killer, as family going forward.

The Direct spoke exclusively with The Walking Dead Chief Content Officer (CCO) Scott M. Gimple at MultiCon 2026, several weeks into Dead City Season 3's eight-week run on AMC and AMC+. The 16-year-old TV franchise's top boss was asked whether Dead City will be renewed for Season 4, to which he called "for everyone to hold out hope" because its viewership and reactions have been stellar:

The Direct: "You mentioned Dead City. Do you think it might end after Season 4, or Season 3? Is it going to end in Season 3?"

IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2 needs another strong cast to emulate Season 1's success on HBO Max, and I'm convinced these five actors are a natural fit due to their experience and impressive resumes. HBO has officially greenlit Welcome to Derry for Season 2, confirming that the series will go 27 years further back in the timeline, straight to 1935. The show's debut season already provided the first preview of IT: Welcome to Derry Season 2 in Episode 6, revealing a black-and-white aesthetic and a grim look at Pennywise's reign of terror during this time period. In order for the usual dread to work in the IT prequel series, Season 2 needs a new group of talented children who will have to carry the fear, friendship, and period texture of 1930s Derry, Maine. 

No Season 2 casting details have been announced yet for Welcome to Derry. Andy Muschietti, the show's producer, confirmed in Deadline's Contenders TV panel that the upcoming season will deal with the Bradley Gang's arrival in the small town, teasing "something horrible" will happen to them which alludes to the threat of Pennywise. 

“It’s 1935 – we’re now working on it, and it’s so much fun. For the ones of you who read the books, probably the Bradley Gang sounds familiar. The Bradley Gang was a gang of bank robbers that — not accidentally, but they were on their way somewhere, and they stopped in Derry to buy some ammo and something horrible happens."

Tracker Season 4 received a major casting upgrade that drastically improves its overall storytelling. The hit action thriller series from CBS has had its fair share of casting changes throughout its three-season run on the network. Tracker already said goodbye to three series regulars with the departure of Robin Weigert's Teddi at the end of Season 2, Eric Graise's Bobby, and Abby McEnany's Velma in Season 3. These three characters were crucial members of Colter Shaw's support team, leaving only Fiona Rene's Reenie Greene and Randy (Chris Lee) as the pair he can fully trust ahead of Season 4. Another key ally of Colter in Tracker is his brother, Russell Shaw (Jensen Ackles), but their relationship became complicated in the Season 3 finale, leading to his questionable exit. 

Tracker Season 3 ended with an exit scare for Jensen Ackles' Russell Shaw after he decided to accept a sinister deal and deliberately kept Colter in the dark about it. As it turned out, Russell received a file confirming that their late father, Ashton Saw, did something to Colter when he was a kid. To keep this information buried, Russell agreed to "fix a problem" for the man involved in their father's past dealings in exchange for the file, while ensuring he and Colter were left alone. 

This wasn't a random decision because, in his mind, Russell preserved this secret to keep his brother safe. He left town without saying goodbye, sparking a major exit scare for Russell amid his uncertain future. CBS clearly had other plans, as Tracker Season 4 set photos (via Reddit) officially confirmed the reunion of the Shaw brothers, as Justin Hartley's Colter and Jensen Ackles' Russell have been spotted on set. 

Chicago Med Season 12 will officially introduce a major change to Gaffney's Emergency Department (ED) due to the departure of a key doctor (but there's a catch). Chicago Med Season 11 featured many changes to its doctor lineup, and one of the most notable changes is the departure of Marlyne Barrett's Maggie Lockwood at the start of the season. Throughout its run, there was a fair share of exit scares, such as Dr. Caitlin Lenox and Dr. Ripley's life-threatening encounter with the deranged husband of their patient, Dr. Charles' health scare in the latter part of the season, and Sharon Goodwin's potential exit after being forced to hand in her resignation. 

Showrunner Allen MacDonald (via TV Line's Fall TV 2026 preview for Chicago Med Season 12) confirmed that Dr. Hannah Asher (Jessy Schram) will be on maternity leave for much of the season, meaning that the latest season will begin without one of its most important attending physicians on the floor and effectively removing her from the main doctor rotation. 

MacDonald revealed in the premiere that Asher will still visit the Emergency Department, but only as a visitor, not as a doctor. Seeing Dr. Archer back to work makes her miss the ED more, and the Chicago Med boss can neither confirm nor deny if Archer will return to join the rest of the main crew of Gaffney at some point in the season. Chicago Med Season 12 will premiere on NBC on October 7 and next day on Peacock.