The Life Of Chuck Trailer Teases A Stephen King Movie That Really Wants To Make You Cry
It's been a few decades since a Stephen King adaptation was designed with our tears in mind, but Mike Flanagan seems determined to break that streak with "The Life of Chuck." The new trailer for Flanagan's upcoming film just dropped from Neon, and while it doesn't reveal too much about the movie's plot, it does promise big emotions and a sweeping, lifetime-spanning story.
"The Life of Chuck" isn't autobiographical, but the sense one comes away with after watching the latest trailer is that it's King and Flanagan's answer to Steven Spielberg's "The Fabelmans." We see flashes of a life filled with sweet mother figures and grandpa-types; dancing in the street; colorful, starry nights; and general scenes of out-of-context wonder. There's also a sense of unspoken melancholy — we get the feeling that whatever is being withheld from audiences (namely, the actual plot), it involves a bittersweet experience involving the circle of life.
The trailer, like the teaser that was released last month, also makes it abundantly clear that unlike most King projects, this one isn't about the scares. "From Stephen King," the title cards promise, "legendary author of 'The Green Mile,' 'Shawshank Redemption,' [and] 'Stand By Me.'" A pull quote from a critic who previewed the film even compares it to "It's A Wonderful Life." Basically, Neon wants us to bring a full pack of tissues to the theater. Message received!
Mike Flanagan is back with his most emotional King adaptation yet
King fans who read the author's 2020 collection "If It Bleeds" will recognize "The Life of Chuck" by title, though the source material is a three-act novella that will no doubt be sketched out more fully to make a feature-length film. The novella is a particularly enigmatic and existential entry in the author's canon. This leaves Flanagan, who has proven himself one of the best and most heartfelt modern King translators with films like "Gerald's Game" and "Doctor Sleep" (plus, hopefully, the upcoming "Dark Tower" series), with plenty of room to play.
The writer/director has a knack for delivering surprise emotional gut punches, whether he's revealing the heartbreaking truth behind the Bent-Neck Lady in "The Haunting of Hill House" or letting his King-inspired vampiric world go up in smoke in "Midnight Mass." The film's marketing team clearly knows this too, as the promo follows up its list of relevant King credentials with a promise that the film comes from "the heart and soul of Mike Flanagan."
Tom Hiddleston stars in the film, as do Benjamin Pajak, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mia Sara, Matthew Lillard, Harvey Guillén, and a whole bunch of other stars. Former and frequent Flanagan collaborators set to appear in the movie include Jacob Tremblay (who met a gruesome end in "Doctor Sleep"), Samantha Sloyan (villainous Bev Keene from "Midnight Mass"), Annalise Basso and Karen Gillan (who played different versions of the same character in "Oculus"), Carl Lumbly (star of "The Fall of the House of Usher"), and Kate Siegel (who is in pretty much every Flanagan project, and is also married to him). And yes, that is the legendary Mark Hamill doing much of the trailer's voiceover, in a performance that Flanagan has already called his "favorite piece of acting [he's] ever seen from" the "Star Wars" star.
"The Life of Chuck" hits theaters on June 6, 2025.