‘The Life of Chuck’ Trailer: Mike Flanagan’s Latest Stephen King Adaptation Forgoes Scares for Heart

Tom Hiddleston leads the cast, which also features Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and Mark Hamill.

Winner of the Toronto Film Festival’s 2024 People’s Choice Award, “The Life of Chuck” has unveiled its first full trailer. Mike Flanagan‘s third Stephen King adaptation, the film is led by Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and Mark Hamill, who narrates the trailer as the eponymous Chuck’s grandfather, Albie Krantz.

The film charts the ordinary, yet extraordinary life story of Charles “Chuck” Krantz, played by Hiddleston, as well as younger actors Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak, and Flanagan’s own son, Cody. Watch the new trailer below.

The official synopsis for “The Life of Chuck” reads: “This unforgettable, genre-bending tale celebrates the life of Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz as he experiences the wonder of love, the heartbreak of loss, and the multitudes contained in all of us.”

In IndieWire’s review out of TIFF, critic Katie Rife wrote of the film, “Structured around a verse from Walt Whitman’s ‘Song of Myself’ — ‘Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes’ — ‘The Life of Chuck’ is told in reverse order from the end of a man’s life to the beginning. It does so in a way that’s surprising enough that it’s best not to discuss it in too much detail; suffice to say that it takes a cosmic approach to the idea of inner worlds. (‘Every man and every woman is a star,’ to quote Whitman’s fellow literary eccentric Aleister Crowley.) The entire movie isn’t sad, although it does land on a note of genuine pathos. But sentimentality suits Flanagan, whose florid writing style is well matched by the high-concept ideas explored here.”

In addition to the cast listed, Nick Offerman also serves as the film’s narrator, with co-stars Annalise Basso, Mia Sara, Matthew Lillard, Carl Lumbly, Harvey Guillén, and Flanagan’s wife and frequent collaborator Kate Siegel all featured as well.

Unlike most King narratives, “The Life of Chuck” is more about joy than scares, though it does wade heavily into the waters of death and mortality.

Neon will release the film in theaters on Friday, June 6. Watch the trailer for “The Life of Chuck” below.