Stephen King Changes Plot Details of Upcoming Novel Amongst COVID-19 Pandemic

Prolific horror writer Stephen King’s upcoming novel If It Bleeds has undergone changes amidst the Coronavirus pandemic. King recently revealed that the novel was initially set in 2020 with the hopes that the presumed 2021 release would have the setting feeling familiar, yet distanced. Like most of the entertainment industry however, the current global climate may have thrown a significant spanner in the works.

With limited information, there really is no knowing when the repercussions of the pandemic may end, so in the interest of sensitivity, King changed the year in which his upcoming novel is set. King spoke to NPR about the change stating that many aspects of his novel couldn’t work in 2020 as we’re experiencing it, motivating the change to 2019 “where people could congregate and be together and the story would work because of that.”

As a result of the COVID-19 spread, many individuals and entire families are locked in their homes or feeling isolated, leaving many to reference the experience as something straight out of a Stephen King novel.

Thankfully, quarantined readers may have King’s new material sooner than previously expected. If It Bleeds by Stephen King is set for release on April 21st, 2020.