The Thing Almost Got A Sequel Series From Frank Darabont - Here's Why It Didn't Happen
This post contains spoilers for "The Thing."
The unresolved, anxiety-inducing ending of John Carpenter's "The Thing" feels bleak no matter how you choose to interpret it. This saturated bleakness is arguably the point, as this is a film primarily about paranoia and mistrust. The titular creature's ability to morph into the inhabitants of the film's research station setting is only one facet of the horrors that unfold. The true horror lies in the inevitability of the survivors being wary of one another, even if neither of them are the Thing, with the hopes of being rescued being squashed forever. Despite countless theories being posited about whether MacReady (Kurt Russell) or Childs (Keith David) is the imposter here, the distinction ceases to matter in the end, as the film chooses to cut to black at this perfectly hopeless juncture.
Talks about a sequel to "The Thing" have been making the rounds for quite some time, with Carpenter himself making some vague statements about his involvement in some potential projects. "I don't know. We'll see," is what the director told FANDOM in 2022 when asked whether he will be directing a potential Blumhouse sequel/reboot for "The Thing" — a tidbit first mentioned by Carpenter at the 2020 Fantasia International Film Festival (via Bloody Disgusting). The most recent comment Carpenter made about this potential Blumhouse project was during a Q&A at Texas Frightmare Weekend in 2023:
"I have been sworn to secrecy, okay, because there may be, I don't know if there will be, there may be a 'Thing 2.'"
Carpenter's response is as cryptic as it gets, and any bets regarding an in-the-works sequel have got to be speculative at the moment. However, it has been confirmed that "The Thing" almost got a sequel series that eventually fell through. What exactly happened?
The Thing sequel series that was not meant to be
During Collider's recent Producers on Producing panel at San Diego Comic-Con, film and TV producer Roy Lee revealed that writer-director Frank Darabont had connected with him to create a sequel series to "The Thing," but the project was eventually scrapped due to studio intervention:
"I was with Frank Darabont after he'd done 'The Walking Dead.' We were working on a sequel series for 'The Thing', which was picking up in the present day after the events of 'The Thing' actually happened. It was done as a series, and he wanted to do it like 'The Walking Dead' and turn it into a thing set in the U.S., but we never got it off the ground. [...] We got a script written, but the studio hated it."
The fact that "The Thing" sequel was supposed to be a Darabont-helmed four-hour mini-series is not exactly new information, as the Sci-Fi Channel (now renamed Syfy) had announced the news back in 2005. Lee confirms that the reason for the show being shelved was Universal's reluctance to go forward with the series. Instead, the studio went ahead with a prequel film in 2011, also titled "The Thing," but it ended up adding nothing meaningful to Carpenter's enduring masterpiece. The beat-by-beat narrative similarities between the original and the prequel only muddle matters, and there is a concerning lack of psychological dread or tense build-up, which the prequel forgoes in favor of dubious CGI abominations that evoke absolutely no emotions.
It might be futile to scream about a potential "Thing 2" into the void, but it is a question tinted with hope, after all. One might also argue that "The Thing" doesn't need a sequel: it is an experience devoid of warmth, meant to never thaw.