Everything The Firestarter Remake Changed From The Stephen King Book
Warning: SPOILERS for Firestarter!
2022's Firestarter reboot makes some major changes from the 1980 Stephen King novel on which it is based. The book follows the story of a father and daughter on the run from a government agency due to the daughter’s psychic ability to spontaneously create fires. Zac Efron stars as Andy McGee as he attempts to protect his daughter, Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), from both the agency and herself.
Firestarter was previously adapted for the big screen in 1984, starring a young Drew Barrymore in the role of Charlie. This rendering of King’s story follows the source material very closely but the film isn’t considered among the best King adaptations. King himself dismissed the movie at the time by calling it “flavorless”, leaving plenty of room for the 2022 remake to try to improve on the story.
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The new film makes some major choices in what to change and cut from King’s novel. Some of the changes are pretty conventional when compared to similar cinematic novel adaptations: Minor characters are removed while others are rounded out to replace those who are cut. The time period of the film is updated from the 80s to the present day. But a few of the changes alter the overall course of the story from King’s original vision. Here’s everything the Firestarter remake changed from the book:
Charlie’s mother, Vicky (played in the movie by Sydney Lemmon, best known for her role as CRM soldier Isabelle in Fear the Walking Dead), is an important character in Firestarter but the beginning of the book finds Andy and Charlie already on the run a few months following Vicky’s death. Her story is told largely through flashbacks, with the
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