The shining symbols of good and evil were just cast for the upcoming adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand.
Collider reports that Alexander Skarsgård, of True Blood and Big Little Lies fame, will play Randall Flagg, the big bad of the series, and a character that carries through many of King’s works. Basically, he’s the Devil.
On the other side, Whoopi Goldberg confirmed on her show The View that she will be playing Mother Abigail, the hopeful woman that survivors of the plague in The Stand start seeing in their dreams, drawing them to her, so they can stand up to and defeat Flagg.
Also confirmed on The View were four other cast members, who’ll join the previously announced James Marsden and Amber Heard, among others. Overlord star Jovan Adepo will play Larry Underwood, It’s Owen Teague is Harold Lauder, Lost’s Brad William Henke is Tom Cullen, and Daniel Sunjata, of The Dark Knight Rises, is Cobb. You may not know those names but, trust us, you’ll recognise their faces.
Landing Skarsgård and Goldberg, though — an Emmy winner and an EGOT winner, respectively — for these prime Stand roles is just another feather in the cap of CBS and Josh Boone, who have been working on adapting King’s epic tome for some time now.
The story, in case you are unaware, is about a disease nicknamed Captain Trips that wipes out the majority of the people in the world. The survivors then find themselves either on either side of a battle between the forces of good, represented by Mother Abigail, and evil, represented by Flagg.
The Stand is expected to debut on CBS All Access in the U.S. in 2020. It’s not known where it will appear in Australia.