Ewan McGregor Cast as Grown-Up Danny Torrance In 'Shining' Sequel

Thirty-eight years after Stanley Kubrick’sThe Shining terrified audiences everywhere, Ewan McGregor has been announced as the actor who'll bring little Danny Torrance into adulthood with the 2020 sequel Doctor Sleep. According to Variety, author Stephen King, who penned Shining in '77 and Sleep in 2013, approves of the casting.

The Warner Bros. production will be directed by Mike Flanagan, who adapted King's 1992 novel Gerald's Game for Netflix last fall. (In 2016 he did a horror hat-trick by writing, directing, and editing Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, and Before I Wake.) Though Doctor Sleep has been in the works for years, the studio fast-tracked it following the explosive success of the 2017 King adaptation It.

The story begins as an adult Danny, now in his 40s, continues to live with the trauma of his childhood experience at the Overlook Hotel. In Sleep, he mirrors the troubling behavior of his insane, murderous father Jack, using alcohol to numb his power/"the shining," before journeying into sobriety. He eventually meets a young girl with the same abilities; they establish a psychic connection and fight off a group of aging, road-tripping spirit-vampires.

Though Kubrick's original film was first labeled a disappointment at the box office, it became a classic in the world of horror and beyond. Flanagan's Doctor Sleep was recently dated for Jan. 24, 2020. Before that, King fans will get a Pet Sematary remake on April 5, 2019.