Ewan McGregor to Play Grown-Up Danny Torrance in ‘The Shining’ Sequel
IT: Chapter Two isn’t the only upcoming Stephen King adaptation featuring adult versions of familiar characters. While the follow-up to Andy Muschietti’s horror hit recently got its grown-up casting all squared away, Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep has quietly been on the hunt for the perfect actor to fill the shoes of Danny Torrance — the psychically gifted kiddo from The Shining.
Per Variety, that someone will be Ewan McGregor, as the actor has signed on to headline Doctor Sleep for Flanagan, who most recently directed another King adaptation: Gerald’s Game. Flanagan pulled off something really impressive with that film, which took a book often deemed too tricky to adapt and transformed it into a horrific but poignant story of survival featuring a stellar performance by Carla Gugino.
Doctor Sleep is another tricky one: Published in 2013, the novel picks up with Danny Torrance a few decades after the events of The Shining. Now an adult, Danny is a recovering alcoholic with anger issues (not unlike his dad) who uses his psychic powers to help ailing people in hospice care. Through his “shining” ability, Danny meets a young girl named Abra (yeah, like Cadabra) who has similar powers, and together they go up against a nefarious group of quasi-immortals who want to leech off of Danny and Abra’s powers like vampires.
It’s definitely one of King’s lesser works, but given what Flanagan was able to do with Gerald’s Game (and the fact that he made an awesome sequel to a crappy horror flick with Ouija: Origin of Evil), I’m optimistic about this adaptation — especially with someone as talented as Ewan McGregor leading the cast.