Have you ever wondered what sort of stories folks like Stephen King like to watch, read, or enjoy? With the hit CBS-turned-Paramount+ series Evil coming to a close, King has been fairly vocal about his thoughts regarding the cancelation, mainly that he hopes the show will instead continue. Following the misadventures of Catholic assessors Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers), Father David Acosta (Mike Colter), and Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi), the series deals with everything from miracles and demonic encounters to the nature of evil and divine providence, all from a skeptics’ point of view. But if the King of Horror is a major fan of your horror series, it might be time for the network to listen…
It’s No Wonder That Stephen King Is a Big ‘Evil’ Fan
Evil‘s cancelation came as a shock and a disappointment to many. Over the years, folks like Guillermo del Toro have praised the show for its ingenuity in its use of monsters and demons, something that’s clearly attracted Stephen King to the series as well. “Dear Paramount+, More EVIL, please,” King wrote on his X account at the end of August. This simple tweet sparked a wildfire of fan praise for the show and even rekindled the passion of some of the show’s main cast. “From the bottom of our Evil hearts, thank you!!!” wrote Katja Herbers in return, and folks have likewise responded with similar hopes for the series.
This isn’t the first time that King has sung the praises of the Paramount+ horror drama, however. “There’s a show called Evil on Paramount+ that I like,” King related in a PBS interview prior (via X). “It’s great. It’s funny, and it’s witty, and it’s very, very sharp.” He’s right on the money there too. Evil is a show that isn’t afraid to talk not just about the nature of evil, but how it rears its ugly head in contemporary times. Teetering the line between faith and religion and mental and psychological remedies, Evil very much falls in line with many of the same themes in King’s own work. In other tweets, he has also deemed the series, “Smart, thought-provoking, occasionally VERY scary.”
Whether it’s because of the show’s fourth and final season or the fact that the first three have recently been added to Netflix, Evil has continued to find itself in the Top 10 of all streaming shows. No doubt, King’s shameless promotion of the series (on which he has no involvement) has aided in these numbers, something that Herbers continues to share with her followers on social media. “A million views for this tweet and our twelfth consecutive week in the Top 10,” Herbers shared on her X account while retweeting King’s petition to the streamer. “Sorry for sounding like a broken record but we’re breaking records.”
Stephen King Should Absolutely Write an ‘Evil’ Episode if the Show Ever Returns
Of course, we would all love for Evil to return, but we might love it even more if creators Robert and Michelle King offered the other (unrelated) King the chance to pen an episode of his own. It’s no secret that, back in the 1990s, Stephen King was such a big fan of The X-Files (a series Evil takes plenty of cues from itself) that he asked to write an episode of the series, Season 5’s “Chinga.” While the results were somewhat mixed, it was still fun to see King’s take on the Mulder and Scully characters (played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson). Likewise, fans would fawn over a King-written episode of a show like Evil.
As mentioned before, Evil is the type of series entirely within King’s wheelhouse as the “King of Horror.” One only has to read some of his best works to realize that there are some common threads between this television series and the author’s own interests, which is undoubtedly part of why he loves the show so very much. Even if Evil never does return, if the Kings could get, perhaps, a Sister Andrea spin-off series off the ground, with Andrea Martin set to reprise her role, Stephen King might have even more wiggle room to explore his take on the demonic horrors of the Evil universe. At this point, we’ll take anything we can get.
Could Stephen King Help Get ‘Evil’ Back on the Air?
But for Stephen King to guest in the Evil writer’s room, Evil would have to first be renewed. While the show itself has come to a close, Robert and Michelle King have teased that the story is far from over, and evil will still exist in the world. Nevertheless, they have no active plans to continue the narrative forward. As cast members like Herbers are hoping to see the adventures of our favorite Catholic assessors continue, it’s Paramount+ that needs to be convinced. Though, with the Kings now busy with their latest series, Elsbeth, as well as their upcoming crime drama Happy Face, it doesn’t seem like making any more Evil is their highest priority. (Not that that’s stopped Herbers from continually campaigning on its behalf.)
Support from someone as popular and respected in the entertainment industry as Stephen King could garner the attention of Paramount+ though, and we hope it does. Even if Evil were to continue in the form of a spin-off or sequel series, more of this wild and wacky universe full of demons and monsters is exactly what audiences are hoping for. After all, that’s why we started watching in the first place, only to stick around for the well-rounded and intricate characters (even when their poor choices made us seethe in response). Whatever the future of Evil holds, the show will always have an audience in Stephen King. If only that was enough.
Evil is available for streaming on Paramount+.
Watch on Paramount+
