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HBO Max isn’t booking J.J. Abrams’ The Shining spinoff - but 'Overlook' may check in at Netflix
J.J. Abrams’ long-gestating push to tell more stories in The Shining lore-verse still has a least one more stop to make before seeing the small screen. HBO Max has reportedly put out the ‘no vacancy’ sign for the Abrams-produced Overlook series, passing up on the horrors set to unfold in the chilling halls of the iconic Stephen King-inspired hotel.
Set on the very grounds of the mountain redoubt where Jack Torrance terrorized his family in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 The Shining, Overlook was initially picked up by HBO Max early last year as part of a deal with Abrams’ Bad Robot production company. Via The Hollywood Reporter, though, the streamer has now decided not to pick up the series, making Overlook a hot property ripe for another streaming competitor to roll out the welcome mat.
Deadline reports that Netflix is now in the lead to book Overlook, though no deal there (or elsewhere) has been finalized. Originally set at HBO Max as part of the fledgling streamer’s overall deal with Bad Robot, Overlook will evolve King’s Shining setting by telling “the untold, terrifying stories of the most famous haunted hotel in American fiction,” as creators teased at the time of its initial 2019 announcement.
With Abrams’ streaming projects ramping up and the allure of landing a Stephen King-based horror series from a production powerhouse with Bad Robot’s pedigree, it’s tough to envision Overlook not finding a new streaming home before night comes and those mountain blizzards set in. The series “is expected to land at a new home soon, with Netflix a likely destination,” Deadline reports.
Other projects from Bad Robot’s larger HBO deal aren’t affected by the service’s decision to pass on Overlook. Those include a fourth season of Westworld, a new sci-fi series titled Demimonde, 1970s drama Duster, a thriller series titled Subject To Change, and pair of upcoming series based on DC's Justice League Dark.
