Randall Flagg is Stephen King’s biggest and best recurring villain, so why is The Stand is the second small-screen adaptation of iconic horror author Stephen King’s massive doorstopper novel of the same name.
A bestseller upon release in 1978, The Stand combines elements of post-apocalyptic sci-fi, religious horror, and King’s trademark character drama in its tale of a ragtag bunch of mismatched survivors who are thrown into an ancient battle between good and evil when a pandemic wipes out much of the planet. The dark fantasy bestseller was already adapted for television in a Gary Sinise-starring 1994 miniseries, which at the time was among the most expensive TV shows ever made.
However, 2020’s version of The Stand has faced some serious backlash among fans of the source material, and it's not just because releasing a miniseries about a killer pandemic in the middle of the ongoing global COVID-19 crisis is a little tasteless (although that hasn't helped matters). Despite an all-star cast, The Stand is failing a classic Stephen King villain and leaving the series without a compelling antagonist as a result. Randall Flagg is one of the horror author’s most notable monsters, and not only is this version of The Stand short-changing his infamous reputation, but it’s also missing out on a chance for some topical political commentary in the process.
Randall Flagg is Stephen King's big bad, his ultimate villain. Having appeared in multiple guises and forms throughout the pages of King’s books, Flagg can lay claim to being one of the main villains in The Children of the Corn, the Dark Tower series, and The Eyes of the Dragon. Alexander Skarsgard is solid casting as the charming, amoral cult leader/literal demon, and keeping his version of the character in the periphery during the first few episodes of The Stand was clearly intended to make the character out to be more of a boogeyman, an unseen presence whose ferocious influence permeates the action of the series. All roads lead to an eventual showdown, even if he’s barely glimpsed in the shadows. Unfortunately, this approach backfired disastrously. Instead, Flagg comes across as less effective than his ittedly cartoonish 1994 iteration, as much of the show’s action takes place without him present.
The recent blockbuster adaptations of King’s other horror goliath, classic 90s King TV miniseries, this incarnation of The Stand’s antagonist doesn't have teeth, and it’s a shame as his influence on his cult could have been used to comment on the real-life rising influence of doomsday survivalist movements across the globe. While Flagg certainly has some powers, it's unclear why the residents of Boulder should be terrified of him, and it couldn’t be less clear that he's literally Stephen King's version of the devil made (a little closer to) human in The Stand.