Horror maestros Mike Flanagan and Stephen King go together like, well, you know. The spooky streaming TV king has already adeptly adapted multiple King titles, including the hard-to-handle Gerald’s Game and The Shining sequel Doctor Sleep. Heck, Flanagan even managed to crank out the life-affirming Life Of Chuck movie during recent Hollywood turmoil, and now, he appears to be circling back to The Dark Tower.
That’s an evergreen dream, as Constant Readers know. There has also been no shortage of attempts (including an ill-conceived movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey) to properly adapt The Dark Tower book series. Further, Flanagan has recently jumped ship from Netflix to Amazon, which went through a previous failed pilot experiment with the IP, and Flanagan has noted that Jeff Bezos’ streaming service likely harbors some “institutional PTSD” but remain “very aware” of his King dreams. Recent positive indications have come down the highway, too, so let’s mull over what we can expect from another meeting of their spooky minds
Plot
After what we saw Flanagan recently do ^^^ with Edgar Allan Poe and Fall of the House of Usher, it’s tempting to wonder how he will deviate from a by-the-books adaptation on The Dark Tower, although we know that no matter what he does, Flanagan will remain intensely faithful to the spirit of King’s work. As such, a new series will give the post-apocalyptic gunslinger his proper due while he attempts to protect a tower (which is tied to multiple realities) from the antagonistic Man In Black (Walter Padick/Randall Flagg, who Constant Readers also know from The Stand).
Is there an official synopsis or publicly available road map on breaking down the eight novels by season? Not yet. However, Flanagan revealed that the series would probably require a five-season commitment plus a few movies. He already has “a pilot script I’m thrilled with and a very detailed outline for the first season and a broader outline for the subsequent seasons.”
Should we hit the latest “will this happen?” updates, too? Sure.
Flanagan insists that this series was meant to be, and King is incredibly eager for the same, which should count for plenty after the author seemingly resurrected the WBD Salem’s Lot movie with a single tweet. And King has been tweeting cryptically over the summer while writing, “Mid-world is still there. The tower still stands.” King also “smirk”-ingly admitted (to Dread Central at the Life of Chuck premiere) that The Dark Tower is what he wants to see adapted next out of his works. What of his Twitter goading? “I’m trying to rev myself up.” King then raved about Flanagan’s ability to “respect the material in a way that keeps him from getting too cute with it. And he’s great at what he does; he’s a real craftsman.”
How does Flanagan currently feel on progress? He told Hollywood Reporter, “That thing’s launching an oil tanker. But we’re working on. It was stalled first by me moving from Netflix to Amazon and stalled again by the strikes. It’s progressing, and we’re further along than we’ve ever been on it.” Ideally, he means even further than when, in 2022, Flanagan previewed his opening-shot intent with those fatefully iconic words: “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” And this year at Emerald City Comic Con, Flanagan described a scene that he cannot wait to adapt:
“Very late in the story, there’s a scene that takes place in a forest where a character is being buried. And there’s a eulogy being given that made me cry the first time that I read it… [it] just kills me, and I can’t wait for that.”
Sure, this saga has seemingly taken forever to be jump started, but the same goes for King’s ordeal in writing the entire saga. He was even interrupted by a collision with a car while cycling, which led to extended physical recovery, and if King could finish those books, then a deserving TV series can be made.
It sounds like the “go ahead” from Amazon is all that Flanagan to fully throw himself into the project.
Cast
Flanagan frequently draws from the same nourishing well of usual suspects for his projects, and we can expect him to keep that practice alive here. So, we would likely see some of the following actors: Carla Gugino, Annabeth Gish, Rahul Kohli, Mark Hamill, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Victoria Pedretti, Katie Parker, Samantha Sloyan, and/or Kate Siegel. Then again, sometimes Flanagan shakes things up and brings in a show-stopper like Hamish Linklater (of Midnight Mass), who would make a fine Man in Black. Then there’s the casting of gunslinger Roland Deschain, which could be a head scratcher.
Previously, Flanagan fave favorite Henry Thomas declared that he would “love to have a part” in this series. Everybody who could be involved wants this project to happen, so it’s time to get that ball rolling.
Release Date
One more hang-up does exist: Flanagan’s new take on The Exorcist will arrive in March 2026. But if The Dark Tower series is officially greenlit soon (and that would involve Amazon overcoming their previous IP trauma with the title while trusting that Flanagan will not make a mess in his built-in playground there), then it shouldn’t take too long to have a pilot come together. Sure, this project would eventually seek to adapt eight novels, but that won’t happen in a first season, and Flanagan proved himself a master at turning around successive Netflix series at a (mostly) one-year interval. Also 2026? Please.
Trailer
This doesn’t simply feel like a trailer for the Elba-McConaghey movie. It feels like an outline of everything that went wrong.