Horror fans, queer fans, and people who love whispering “Oh this is going to be deliciously messy” at their screens, rejoice: Stephen King’s next big-screen adaptation is unapologetically, unmistakably queer. And yes, it’s actually called Mister Yummy. We’ve won.
According to Deadline, Mister Yummy is officially in the works, with a screenplay by rising writer Troy Blake and production under Thomas Mahoney. The project is currently being shopped around after making its sales debut at the American Film Market—and even without casting news, the gay internet is already vibrating like a haunted Ouija planchette.
Why? Because King didn’t just green-light another adaptation. He green-lit a queer horror story about aging, mortality, desire, memory, and the ghosts we try (and fail) to outrun. And instead of teen scream queens or sexy vampires, this one centers two elderly gay men navigating the last chapter of their lives. It’s queer horror… but grown up. Elevated. Emotional. And yes—still terrifying.
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So What Is Mister Yummy?
Originally published in The Bazaar of Bad Dreams in 2015, Mister Yummy is a short story wrapped in nostalgia, AIDS-era grief, longing, and an absolutely bone-chilling concept: what if the figure who comes to escort you to the afterlife isn’t a hooded reaper… but the one person you once found unbearably, earth-shatteringly hot?
Meet Ollie Franklin, an older gay man spending his final days at the Lakeview Assisted Living Center. As he opens up to fellow resident Dave Calhoun, he recounts the defining moments of his life as a queer man in America—his youth, his friendships, the devastation of the 1980s AIDS epidemic. And then there’s the memory he can’t shake: a stunning, impossibly beautiful guy he met once at a New York club, who he and his friends nicknamed ‘Mister Yummy.’
One night of dancing, flirting, and a flash of possibility—that’s all it was. But decades later, as Ollie approaches death, he begins to see Mister Yummy again. Not aged. Not changed. Still gorgeous, still glowing… but getting closer.
Dave dismisses it at first. He thinks Ollie is slipping. But then Ollie dies—and suddenly Dave begins seeing his own personal “death avatar,” a striking young redheaded woman he once spotted in the 1940s. Not a demon. Not a monster. Something stranger and more intimate: desire fused with mortality.
Honestly? King said “what if death, but make it horny.”
And we applaud.
2025: The Year Stephen King Goes Full Queer Horror
Mister Yummy isn’t the only project reminding audiences that King has always held space for queer characters in his work. This year’s major King adaptations have all included distinctly LGBTQ+ threads—some subtle, some overt, all meaningful.
“Mr. Yummy,” a new Stephen King adaptation, explores aging, morality, and regrets that become specters. Will it be a hit like “The Mist” or “Gerald’s Game”? #StephenKing #HorrorMovies pic.twitter.com/zRoO6hZJmF
— Travis NyQuill Brown (@TravisNyquill) November 24, 2025
Even The Long Walk, which just premiered, made headlines among queer viewers for the unexpectedly tender bond between walkers Ray Garraty (Cooper Hoffman) and Pete McVries (David Jonsson). Pete openly alludes to being gay in one scene—something fans familiar with the novel recognized as a long-overdue acknowledgment. Yes, the story is still bleak and brutal because it’s King—but queerness exists in the cracks, in the closeness, in the moments that take your breath away.
So with Mister Yummy stepping into the adaptation spotlight, it’s clear that queerness isn’t a side dish in King’s universe. It’s baked in. It always has been.
King Receives Backlash for IT Chapter Two Gay Scene
It’s not always good to put gay people in horror stories and movie goers were furious with King’s opening scene of IT Chapter Two where a gay man was thrown off a bridge and then Pennywise hauled him off, never to be seen again.
Instinct’s managing editor grew up 15 miles away from King, in the center of Maine. Everyone knew King, saw him at baseball games, knew his wife and children. He was part of the fabric of the Bangor, Maine area. He was part of the community. So when people were jeering king for giving homophobes fodder with that first scene, Adam Dupuis wrote in ‘It Chapter Two’ To Portray Dark & Real Part Of Maine History – Chuckahomo Bridge, King was writing about real life and a horrific incident that happened in the 1980s in Bangor, Maine, when a young gay man was killed, thrown off a bridge downtown. An excerpt from that post:
The Kings pull a great deal of content from their personal experiences in Maine, but often write them into New Hampshire towns in their books. Mainers know when things are about their state in the Kings’ books and it makes us proud, squeamish, and excited. I had never read It, but I did see the television adaptation and the recent blockbuster and highest grossing horror movie of all time. What I did not know is Stephen King’s original It book portrayed a real-life event that kept many gay Maine men and other LGBTQ in the closet and on edge for years to come.
On July 7, 1984, Charlie Howard was beaten within an inch of his life and pushed over the side of a bridge and was left to die. It readers know this scene as a key moment in Derry history when a gay man watches in terror as his partner Adrian is brutally beaten by a group of homophobes before they push him over the side of a bridge. King based this scene in the book on the real-life occurrence and death of Charlie Howard.
King is a writer of chilling suspense and horror, but sometimes, the writing is just about the horrors of real life.
Why Mister Yummy Could Be the Next Great Gay Horror Film
This adaptation has all the ingredients for a queer horror classic:
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An older gay protagonist (when do we ever get that?)
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AIDS-era memory woven through supernatural dread
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A chilling, sensual figure as a herald of death
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A story that treats queer aging with empathy instead of invisibility
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And horror not built on shame, but on longing and inevitability
Plus, the director’s stated goals—“make you laugh, make you think, make you feel, make you scared”—suggest a tone that balances fear with heart, which is exactly what makes the original story so unforgettable.
It’s not about punishing its queer characters. It’s about honoring them—even as they stare down the end.
When Do We Get It?
Casting hasn’t been announced yet, but with sales already underway and buzz growing, it’s only a matter of time before we hear who’s stepping into the shoes of Ollie, Dave, and the ghostly, devastatingly attractive Mister Yummy himself.
Until then, one thing is clear: Stephen King is continuing his unexpected reign as 2025’s Gay Horror Whisperer. And honestly? Long may he terrorize us.
REFERENCE: Deadline