How Will The 'Shining' Sequel Handle The Book's WTF Ending?

Doctor Sleep sounds like a new medically spurious talk show produced by Oprah, but it's actually an upcoming movie based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, which is a sequel to The Shining. Surprisingly, when the trailer was released last week, we learned that the movie isn't just an adaptation of King's book, but also a follow-up to Kubrick's iconic movie, despite the fact that King hates that picture with a passion fiery enough to have been conjured by a pint-sized Drew Barrymore.

Doctor Sleep follows an adult Danny Torrance (played by Ewan McGregor) as he battles a gang of psychic vampires. But the trailer also gives us a bunch of callbacks to the classic 1980 film, like a Big Wheel ride along the Overlook Hotel's memorable carpeting.

Warner Bros.

There's the naked ghost lady in Room 237, who's probably getting awfully pruney in that bath by now.

Warner Bros.

There are even the Grady twins, who just wanted to play "forever and ever," which is kind of endearing when you think about it.

Warner Bros.

In crafting this narrative balancing act, director Mike Flanagan had to get permission from both Kubrick's estate and King himself. He even confessed that "Threading that needle has been the source of every ulcer we've had for the last two years." Fans of the book, though, are wondering how this approach will affect the ending. In the book -- SPOILERS INCOMING, SERIOUSLY -- Danny returns to the site where the Overlook formerly stood and pals around with the ghost of his dad, Jack Torrance.

But in the Kubrick film, the Overlook didn't burn down. After presumably being visited by hordes of lame Discovery Channel ghost-hunting shows in the intervening years, it seems as though Danny will get to poke around the abandoned hotel. But what about his dad? Jack Nicholson is too old to even make movies about how hilariously old he is, so don't expect him to show up. Will we get some kind of Rogue One-esque CGI abomination? More likely, the filmmakers simply recast the part. As IndieWire points out, actor Henry Thomas has said that he'll be playing an unnamed "very bad dude" in the film, despite the fact that his name isn't listed in the IMDb credits. Meaning that the guy who was once the adorable Elliott in E.T. might secretly be playing cinema's greatest axe-wielding psycho.

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