''The book was really good': Fans react as upcoming Stephen King adaptation The Institute's trailer surfaces; Ben Barnes receives high praise

MGM+ has unveiled the trailer for The Institute, their upcoming horror supernatural series, based on Stephen King's 2019 novel.

The show follows a teenager, Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman), who possesses supernatural abilities and wakes up in an eerie facility, run by Ms. Sigsby (Mary-Louise Parker). The facility seems to be capturing teenagers with extraordinary abilities and experimenting on them.

Things get intense when a haunted police officer, Tim Jamieson (Ben Barnes), shifts to a nearby town and gets entangled with Luke's story and this mysterious place.

After their breakthrough horror series From, MGM+ is now set to bring another King adaptation to life. The show is written by Benjamin Cavell and directed by Jack Bender, who also serve as executive producers.

The network recently released the first trailer, and fans are excited to see a fan-favorite Stephen King novel come to life. A Reddit user commented:

''The book was really good...''

The Institute will have a total of eight episodes and will debut with a double-episode premiere on July 13, 2025.

More on this in our story.

Fans react to Stephen King's The Institute's first trailer

Stephen King is famously dubbed the King of Horror and many of his famous books and short stories have been adapted for screens small and big in the past two decades. His 2019 novel The Institute is already a fan favorite, and the audience has fairly mixed reactions to MGM+'s latest trailer.

Some fans of the books seemed hopeful about the latest adaptation, as they commented on Reddit:

''Looks interesting. I'll definitely be checking it out,'' u/Decimonster posted

''I hope the show is able to capture that [book] properly," u/LovelyOrangeJuice said

However, many other Reddit users felt that The Institute's trailer gave away way too much:

''This trailer is showing too much! I'm still interested, but the trailer is bad!'' u/AsianMoocowFromSpace said

''Looks good but they gave away the whole story in the trailer. I literally do not need to watch the show to know what happens now lol,'' u/Edgezg commented

While the trailer might have felt too much, fans are still excited about the upcoming Stephen King adaptation, especially for the exceptional cast. The users were all praise for Barnes, who has already shown his acting chops in projects like Shadow and Bone and Westworld.

Reddit user u/TonyDP2128 felt Ben Barnes would justify his casting in The Institute:

''Ben Barnes played Jigsaw in the Punisher series starring Jon Betnthal. He was quite good in that role, I think he'll make a good Tim.''

While Barnes' casting received positive reviews, fans seemed divided on Louise Parker's casting, calling the actress 'too young' for Ms. Sigsby. However, the fans still seem excited to see the actress' take on the character:

''Mary Louise Parker seems a little too young for Mrs Sigsby though, at least based on how she was described in the book,'' u/TonyDP2128 posted

''I'm interested to see her portrayal of Mrs Sigsby. Not at all who I would have picked just solely based on how I pictured her (I didn't have anyone picked out, tbh), but I'm definitely interested to see how she does,'' u/fuschia_taco seemed hopeful

The Institute premieres on MGM+ on July 13, 2025.

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Also Read: The Institute: Release date news, cast details, streaming details

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