'Doctor Sleep' director says sequel was cancelled following poor box office performance

2019 film has become a cult hit but not enough to get a sequel

'The Shining' finally received a sequel in 2019 in the form of 'Doctor Sleep', but the poor box office performance of the film killed any hopes of a sequel according to director Mike Flanagan.

'Doctor Sleep' has attained a sizeable online following among horror fans, and while Flanagan has gone on to mainstream success with 'Midnight Mass', the director says he'll "always regret" not being able to make a sequel.

The director said on Twitter that a sequel was "so close" to happening, but the film was cancelled by Warner Brothers following a poor box performance.

In a 2020 interview, Flanagan revealed that the sequel would follow the character of Dick Hallorann and discussed the potential plot for the film.

He told the ReelBlend podcast that the film would have featured the famous Overlook Hotel.

"Hallorann was always more about Dick as a younger man learning about the shining. The ‘Doctor Sleep’ novel tees up a prologue for it perfectly with the story of his grandmother and his grandfather, which he tells a little bit of in the movie," he said.

"The idea was to open with him as Carl Lumbly, and then to find a way to go back into the past and kind of tell this other story that inevitably would, very much in the way ‘Doctor Sleep’ did, inevitably bring us back to a familiar hotel.”

Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, 'Doctor Sleep' has gained a second life, in large part thanks to Flanagan's directors cut.

In comparison to other Stephen King adaptations released in 2019 such as 'Pet Semetary' and 'It: Chapter Two' however, the box office performance of 'Doctor Sleep' killed any hopes of a sequel.

Flanagan rebounded with 'The Haunting Of Bly Manor' in 2020, as well as 2021's 'Midnight Mass', and is gearing up for his new Netflix series 'The Midnight Club'.

The director has established himself as one of the biggest names in horror, with hits like 'Oculus' and 'Ouija: Origin of Evil' under his belt.

Fans of the horror director can catch his new series 'The Midnight Club' on Netflix from October 7th, and fans of Stephen King's writing should check out our piece on upcoming big screen adpatations of the horror authors work.