Stephen King confirms that he’s writing The Talisman 3, working on completing the trilogy he started with Peter Straub
Back in 1984, writers Stephen King and Peter Straub collaborated on the fantasy novel The Talisman, in which a 12-year-old boy named Jack Sawyer goes on a cross-country journey to save the life of his ailing mother – a journey that takes him not just through the American heartland but also through a parallel universe called The Territories. In 2001, King and Straub reteamed for the sequel Black House, which found an adult Jack Sawyer working for the LAPD and travelling to Wisconsin to bring down a serial killer called The Fisherman. There have been rumblings of a third book in the series for a decade now… and even though Straub passed away in 2022, King is sticking with the plan to finish the Jack Sawyer trilogy. Back in October, he wrote on social media, “I’m back in Mid-World…and the Territories. Don’t know if it will develop into anything–I never know–but it’s good to be back.” Now, he has written on Threads, “Beavering away on Talisman 3.“
King went on to add, “Peter Straub had a terrific idea (for The Talisman 3) before passing away. Dual credit, as on The Talisman and Black House. But as always, I can never be sure a book will be done until it is. This one has a long way to go.” When a fan asked if he’s going to be channeling his “inner Straub” while writing this book, King said, “Absolutely.“
Several years ago, it was said that Straub and King knew exactly what the third book in the Talisman series was going to be, and the idea was something related to a famous real world story that both authors kept scrapbooks about when they were young. The specifics have never been revealed, and it’s not clear if that’s the same idea King is pushing forward now.
The adaptation rights to The Talisman have been in the hands of Steven Spielberg for more than forty years, ever since Spielberg got a look at the manuscript when it was still a work-in-progress and talked Universal Pictures into buying him the rights forever, not just an adaptation option that would eventually expire. At one point, Spielberg was planning to direct the adaptation himself, but he eventually decided he would just produce it. In the early 2000s, the project was set up as a six-hour TNT miniseries with Ehren Kruger (Reindeer Games) writing the scripts… but TNT wasn’t comfortable with the high budget. At another point, Josh Boone (the recent The Stand miniseries) was attached to write and direct. Then Chris Sparling (Buried) was writing the screenplay for a feature film adaptation, with Mike Barker (The Handmaid’s Tale) on board to direct. For the last few years, Stranger Things creators The Duffer Brothers have been developing a series adaptation of The Talisman for the Netflix streaming service.
King has previously said that if he did write The Talisman 3, it would be “a long book”. Which makes sense, because its predecessors The Talisman and Black House were both over 600 pages. Since he’s in the early stages of it now, it might be a while before we hear anything more about the book… although, with King tending to write 6 pages / 2000 words a day, it might not take him as long to knock this one out as you might expect.
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