Stephen King Show The Institute Finally Breaks A Dark Ben Barnes TV Streak (2024)

The highly anticipated TV show adaptation of Stephen King's 2019 novel The Institute will break a streak for star Ben Barnes. Adaptations of King's stories are still a hot commodity for the TV and movie industries. As recently as last year, King was the mind behind one of the most well-received horror films of 2023 with The Boogeyman. The Institute falls into King's plethora of novels that involve mind powers (The Shining, Carrie, etc.) and follows a child with telekinetic abilities placed in a hidden institute and a small-town cop trying to rescue him.

The Institute will be an MGM+ original series, have eight episodes, and will start filming in Nova Scotia later this year. It will reunite King and director Jack Bender after they worked together on Under the Dome and one of King's highest-quality TV series, Mr. Mercedes. Benjamin Cavell will be the series' writer after working on the most recent CBS TV adaptation of The Stand. Though not much has been released about the cast in its entirety, it will feature Weeds' Mary-Louise Parker and Ben Barnes in the small-town police officer role of Tim Jamieson. For Barnes, this is an exciting departure.

Ben Barnes Has Regularly Been Typecast As Villains & Twisted Guys On TV

He Played Villains In Westworld, The Punisher, and Shadow & Bone

So far in Ben Barnes' career, he's had an affinity and a natural talent for playing the villain. Most of his characters weave a level of charm throughout their devious plans, which are covered up by a handsome face. This not only causes viewers to be more forgiving of his characters' heinous acts but also gives his villainous performances more depth. In Westworld, Barnes plays Logan Delos, an arrogant jerk who introduces William to the park and continuously shows off his darker side by killing and abusing Westworld's hosts.

In Netflix's The Punisher, Barnes plays the good-looking Billy Russo, a friend and Marine who served with Frank Castle in Afghanistan. He then betrays Frank and, after a brutal showdown, becomes the villain known in the Marvel Universe as Jigsaw. In Netflix's Shadow & Bone, Barnes plays General Kirigan (AKA The Darkling,) a manipulative general who believes he's a savior instead of the morally corrupt military man he is. Even in his one-episode roles in Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities and Black Mirror, Barnes plays dark and twisted characters, though not necessarily villains.

Barnes Will Finally Play A Hero In MGM+'s Adaptation Of Stephen King's The Institute

Tim Jamieson Is An Everyman Police Officer With A Difficult Past

Barnes will finally get the chance to play a major heroic character on TV with the role of everyman, night-knocking cop, Tim Jamieson. Like most of Stephen King's protagonists, Jamieson has a past filled with moral dilemmas, but unlike almost all of Barnes' TV roles, Jamieson errs on the side of moral compassion and stands up for the weak and powerless. It will certainly be a chance for Barnes to show off his acting chops in an unfamiliar area, but he isn't a complete stranger to the hero role.

One of the biggest roles of Barnes' career is as the dashing Prince Caspian in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a performance he was praised for at just 27 years old. For his role in Prince Caspian, he was awarded with a nomination for Breakthrough Performance Male at both the MTV Movie Awards and Teen Choice Awards. Barnes' casting in The Institute will give him the chance to play a hero again but in a vastly different genre.

The Institute

Horror

Fantasy

Thriller

Luke Ellis whose parents are murdered. He wakes up at The Institute in a room that looks just like his own, except there's no window. Outside his door are other doors, behind which are other kids. who got there the same way Luke did.

Cast

Mary-Louise Parker , Ben Barnes

Seasons

1

Streaming Service(s)

MGM+

Directors

Jack Bender

Main Genre

Horror

Number of Episodes

8