One of Stephen King's earliest major successes was The Shining, published in the late 1970s, which inspired both a film and a miniseries. The latter was born out of King's dissatisfaction with Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation, as he wanted to create his own version. While this reasoning makes sense, it raises the question: why, more than thirty years later, did King decide to write a sequel to The Shining, titled Doctor Sleep, which was later adapted into a film by Mike Flanagan? The answer is simple: King wanted to challenge himself.
In an older interview around the time of the book's release, King explained his motivations to Neil Gaiman, creator of The Sandman. He shared his thoughts on revisiting the world of The Shining:
"I decided to do it because it seemed like such an irritatingly challenging idea that it had to be done. To present a sequel to a book that had been incredibly popular in its time—one that many people had read in their youth—and then have them, as adults, pick up the sequel only to think, ‘Well, this isn’t as good as the original.’ The challenge was to see if it could be just as good—or at least different. That gives you something to push against."
In essence, King saw it as a challenge to defy the expectations of The Shining fans who might think Doctor Sleep couldn’t measure up. Additionally, he was genuinely curious about what had become of Danny Torrance as an adult.
However, many critics and fans felt King didn’t quite rise to the challenge, with Doctor Sleep not reaching the same heights as The Shining. Perhaps for this reason—or for others—Flanagan's film adaptation of Doctor Sleep also received mixed reviews and underperformed at the box office. Despite this, both King and Flanagan expressed openness to a potential continuation, though no further sequel has materialized to date.
What about you? How did you feel about Doctor Sleep, including its film adaptation?
