When a Stephen King adaptation is announced, we know we’re going to be in for a treat – and a thrill.

Following the previous success of It and It: Chapter Two, the latest of King’s classic novels to be adapted for the big screen, Firestarter, was announced in May 2021. And now, we finally get our first look at the high-drama supernatural thriller with a brand new trailer.

Firestarter stars Zac Efron as Andy and Sydney Lemmon as Vicky, parents who have been on the run for more than a decade, desperate to hide their daughter Charlie (American Horror Story’s Ryan Kiera Armstrong) from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction.

“Andy has taught Charlie how to defuse her power, which is triggered by anger or pain. But as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control,” teases a synopsis. “After an incident reveals the family’s location, a mysterious operative (Michael Greyeyes) is deployed to hunt down the family and seize Charlie once and for all.”

But if the darkly tense trailer is anything to go by, Charlie has other plans.

“Something feels weird, something’s changing,” Charlie nervously tells her father in the opening shot. But as we watch her become more powerful – alighting her school bathroom, destroying her house and burning a crow with just her mind – she becomes more at ease with her gift. Whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen.

“I don’t wanna hurt anyone, but it feels kind of good,” she says in the closing shot.

This isn’t the first time the novel has been brought to our screens, a very young Drew Barrymore starred in a  film adaptation in 1984.  However, this fresh take will be brought to us by horror masters Blumhouse and Universal Pictures, directed by Keith Thomas (The Vigil) and with a script from Scott Teems (Halloween Kills).

Luckily, we don’t have to wait long to see this iconic remake come back to life. Firestarter is due to be released in cinemas and streaming service Peacock on 13 May.

Images: Universal/Blumhouse