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James Marsden, set to play protagonist Stu Redman in the new Stephen King‘s The Stand TV miniseries, compares it to the real life Coronavirus outbreak. Pop culture history is full of movies and TV shows that depict some kind of fast-acting sickness that manages to easily spread out among the human population. Sometimes this malady is successfully contained before it can do too much damage, but other times things get bad enough to cause a change of apocalyptic proportions.
Perhaps the most famous story concerning the latter type of plague is King’s The Stand, a door stopper of a novel that tells the tale of Captain Trips, a mad-made, advanced version of the flu that’s so brutally efficient that it takes mere months to bring the Earth’s population to its knees. Complicating matters is the story’s supernatural element, in which “good” people are compelled to the side of the godly Mother Abigail, and “evil” people are taken under the command of Randall Flagg, an ancient demon-like foe.
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The Stand was memorably adapted as an 8-hour TV miniseries in 1994 for ABC, which featured lots of recognizable actors. Soon, CBS All Access will debut its streaming Stand miniseries, a re-adaptation of King’s massive book, set to run for 10 hours. During a recent appearance on The Big Ticket podcast, Marsden was asked about the new Stand, and its potential parallels to the current Coronavirus outbreak worrying the world. Here’s what he had to say.
The Stand’s James Marsden Discusses Parallels to Coronavirus Outbreak
“It would be a cruel irony if The Stand happens before The Stand comes out.”
“I’m hoping we get a hold of it before it reaches the catastrophic proportions it does in The Stand.”
“It’s an interesting strange sort of parallel universe going on. There are scenes in the beginning of ‘The Stand’ where as soon as you see someone who looks normal sneeze or cough into their arm, your eyes – everyone’s eyes in the room – darts towards them. I see that in public now, and everyone kind of takes a few steps away from the person. It’s crazy. We’re in full panic mode right now.”
In CBS All Access’ adaptation of The Stand, James Marsden takes over the role of Stu Redman (first played by Gary Sinise), a blue collar man who becomes an unlikely leader once the end times begin. The new miniseries is currently filming, and as is apparent from Marsden’s quotes above, those involved with the production are very much aware of the irony and odd timing of telling this story when an actual highly contagious virus continues to spread worldwide.
The Stand is reportedly in line for a 2020 release, although Marsden cautions fans about expecting it soon, as neither CBS or the cast and crew want it to appear like they’re trying to capitalize on the similarities between Captain Trips and the Coronavirus. Obviously, should the Coronavirus get that much worse within the U.S., there will be much more important things to worry about than a new TV show’s premiere. Hopefully the world’s governments manage to get Coronavirus under control before its parallels to The Stand become even more alarming.
Source: The Big Ticket Podcast
