Stephen King has announced he's returning to the Territories, and it's making me really hopeful that he might finally be working on the third book in The Talisman series that he's teased for a few years. The original The Talisman, published in 1984, was co-written by the late horror great Peter Straub, as was the 2001 sequel, Black House. While the epic has been beloved by his faithful Constant Readers, it's never gotten the proper attention of other the Duffer Brothers are trying to get a Talisman TV adaptation off the ground).

The Talisman follows 12-year-old Jack Sawyer, who embarks on a trip across America and a parallel world known as the Territories to procure a magical artifact known as the Talisman to cure his mother, who is dying from cancer. Along the way, he learns that their worlds are connected, and he can save the queen of the Territories, who is also dying. Black House follows an adult Jack, now a former LAPD homicide detective, who must solve a string of murders that bring him back to the Territories. While Black House tied up Jack's story nicely, readers like me have wondered if King would ever return for a third Talisman book.

Stephen King's Territories Tease Could Mean He's Working On The Talisman 3

It Wouldn't Be The First Time He Wrote A Sequel After Decades

A few days ago, King put an exciting tease out on social media, announcing his return to both Mid-world and the Territories: "I'm back in Mid-World...and the Territories. Don't know if it will develop into anything--I never know--but it's good to be back," he said. While those familiar with The Dark Tower most certainly perked up at the mention of Mid-world (I know I did), the bit I focused on was his mention of the Territories.

With him specifically mentioning the Territories, it makes me wonder if he's finally working on that third Talisman book that he's teased for the past year. Of course, with Stephen King's history, there's always a chance he'll return to an old story with a new sequel or connection. He just did it with the short story "Rattlesnakes" in You Like It Darker, which served as a surprise Cujo sequel, after all, and that was a sequel almost 43 years in the making. Any story could be next.

But with this tweet, it would appear that even if what he eventually ends up writing doesn't directly follow The Talisman and Black House, it will at least return to that world, which is really exciting. Even though Jack Sawyer's story was wrapped up in a satisfactory way in Black House, the Territories is a fascinating world that has more stories to tell.

Stephen King Has Talked About Writing Another Talisman Sequel Before

He's Gone So Far As To Start Taking Notes & Rereading The First Two Books

Another reason I'm hopeful that it could be The Talisman 3 that he's working on is that Stephen King has talked before about potentially writing another sequel. He directly addressed the possibility of a third Talisman book in 2023 on the Talking Scared podcast, revealing that Straub had had some ideas before he died. "Before he died, Peter sent me this long letter and said we oughta do the third one," he said, "and he gave me a really cool idea and I had some ideas of my own."

In another episode of that same Talking Scared podcast earlier this year, the subject of The Talisman 3 came up again, and King mentioned he'd gone back and reread The Talisman and taken notes, and he planned to reread Black House and see if he could make it work. He also revealed that Straub's idea had been to do something with the real-life serial killer Charles Starkweather for the third book, and that he had Straub's notes and his own in a box. Like most of his best books, it's an idea that has clearly been percolating in his brain for a while. As he said in the tweet, it may come to nothing, but he's at least working on something and seeing if he can make the pieces fit.

But it's another bit from the podcast that makes me think it's not the Dark Tower universe portion of Mid-world, proud of what he's accomplished. So if he's returning to Mid-world and the Territories, that makes me think it will be from The Talisman side of things, not The Dark Tower.

Why The Talisman 3 Would Be The Most Exciting Addition To The Author's Lineup

It Can Finally Clear Up Some Canon Issues

Honestly, while I look forward to any new Stephen King book, whether it's a novel or a short story collection, I would be thrilled if he were working on The Talisman 3. For starters, it's just a really cool world, and the Territories have a lot of fertile storytelling ground. While The Dark Tower is his magnum opus, King has never spent much time simply exploring Mid-world and all it has to offer in stories that didn't center Roland Deschain. It would be a nice change of pace to have a story that partly takes place in Mid-world that has nothing to do with the Dark Tower or Roland's quest. All things may serve the Beam, but that doesn't mean every story has to.

A Talisman sequel that still incorporates Mid-world could finally clear up some of the messier multiverse canon issues introduced in Black House.

I'm also excited because a Talisman sequel that still incorporates Mid-world could finally clear up some of the messier multiverse canon issues introduced in Black House. While the original Talisman was completely separate from The Dark Tower, Black House blurred the lines there when Jack was sucked into a world that ostensibly was The Talisman's Territories, but included several things that, to that point, had been specific to Mid-world, like the Little Sisters of Eluria, speaking stones, mentions of Roland and the gunslingers, and even the Dark Tower and the Beams.

In 2003, King released a revised and expanded edition of his 1982 novel The Gunslinger, adding to the story and retroactively fixing certain plot holes and canon issues that had been created in later books as the lore got more complicated.

It wouldn't be the first time one of King's long-running epic series created earlier canon problems that he then went back and fixed: see, of course, the revised and expanded edition of The Gunslinger. So Constant Readers have more or less shrugged and accepted the muddiness of the Dark Tower/Talisman connection, simply choosing to roll with it and enjoying the stories for what they are. Still, if Stephen King releases a new Talisman epic that properly clears it up and ties all the pieces together, that would be, well, epic.

Sources: Talking Scared, Talking Scared