‘The Talisman’: Duffer Brothers Reveal They’re No Longer Involved With Stephen King Series Adaptation At Netflix

Many are anticipating the “Stranger Things” season five finale debuting on New Year’s Eve this week (Wednesday, if you didn’t know) on Netflix and what the future holds for the show’s creative force, The Duffer Brothers, is a little up-in-the-air as they confirmed that one of their streaming TV projects won’t be moving forward, “The Talisman,” based on the work of prolific author Stephen King and co-writer Peter Straub published back in 1984.

Speaking with ComicBookResources, the sibling duo shared an update that the series iteration of King’s “The Talisman” isn’t moving forward at Netflix, and they’re no longer involved with the project, which has been in development for 40 years.

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“Sadly, ‘Talisman’ is no longer at Netflix, so we’re not involved,” Ross Duffer told CBR of the status of the former Netflix adaptation. Matt Duffer added, “I remember I was, I think it was probably naive of us to think we could break ‘The Talisman.’”

Ross also recalled how far back the project goes and highlights the Hollywood curse getting made, “When I interned, when I was really, you know, back in college at Kennedy Marshall, I remember reading, I think it was a movie script for Talisman. So it’s been in development forever, so I’m sorry that we were not the ones to break the curse.”

If you’re not familiar with the source material, the project’s story focuses on “a young boy named Jack Sawyer and his sprawling quest through a monstrous alternate dimension to find the mystical title object that can cure his dying mother. He might just save two worlds in the process.”

One of the more recent attempts was a feature film from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin and The Kennedy/Marshall Company (alluded to by Ross Duffer), hiring director Mike Barker (“Outlander,” “The Handmaid’s Tale”) in 2019, but that would also fizzle out before the Netflix series attempt was announced in 2021.

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It’s hard not to notice the Duffer Brothers’ “Stranger Things” being a massive love letter to the work of King (plenty of references to his work, such as “IT,” “Firestarter,” and much more), so I’m sure it’s a little upsetting that the duo won’t be able to tackle the source material. A reminder that the season finale of “Stranger Things” drops on New Year’s Eve.