It’s fair to say that Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower, which includes an eight-novel box series along with a few offshoots including a novella, has been a challenge to successfully adapt. Previous efforts include a 2017 movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, which didn’t do so hot at the box office (or with critics). As well, a 2020 TV pilot was jettisoned by Amazon when the streamer didn’t pick the adaptation up for series.
That last detail could be of interest, considering that TV horror maestro Mike Flanagan recently concluded his fantastic run on Netflix for a TV deal with Amazon. At his former stomping grounds, his successes included the Fall of the House of Usher, Midnight Mass, and The Haunting of Hill House along with a film adaptation of Gerald’s Game (starring Carla Gugino). The latter project was, of course, based upon the Stephen King novel of the same name, and Flanagan took another swing at adapting King material with Doctor Sleep, the direct sequel to The Shining that brought back Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) as an adult.
So, if anyone could give The Dark Tower the TV series adaptation that it deserves, it would be Flanagan, and there’s good news on that front. He’s been developing the project for years, and his efforts appear to be moving along after Flanagan finished with Netflix. Would the series eventually land at Amazon? Let’s talk it over, along with more about Flanagan’s plans.
Plot
Prior to Flanagan inking a deal with Amazon, he and Trevor Macy’s Intrepid Pictures acquired rights for the whole The Dark Tower series of books. Since then, they have been hammering out a strategy on how to adapt the fantasy/Western/sci-fi/horror epic saga about a post-apocalyptic gunslinger who is attempting to protect a tower (that is tied to multiple realities) from the Man in Black (Walter Padick/Randall Flagg, who is the chief antagonist of King’s The Stand). As Deadline noted in December 2022, Flanagan has been known to present his vision (complete with his idea for an opening shot, which is a black screen emblazoned with “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed”) for the project while discussing his other shows.
Flanagan also told Deadline that he envisions five TV seasons and two movies to complete The Dark Tower story, and he has already written “a pilot script I’m thrilled with and a very detailed outline for the first season and a broader outline for the subsequent seasons.” He continued to unfurl his excitement:
I’ll tell you, more than half of my life, I’ve closed my eyes and been able to watch a lot of this play out, I’ve dreamed about this. That first shot which comes right off at the first incredible sentence of the first book, The Gunslinger, I’ve had that image just rattling around in my head since I was an undergrad. It’s going to have to get out of there eventually, I really need to get it out of my head.
The pilot script is one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to work on. It’s been surreal working on that. So we’ve been floored and grateful that Stephen King trusts us with such an undertaking, something so precious to him, and we hope to find the right partners to realize it.
Flanagan added to Deadline that Amazon is “very aware” of his ongoing The Dark Tower efforts, and “we would be fairly understanding of any institutional PTSD off of the other attempts they made at adapting it over there.” However, “if that’s something that they would be interested in, we’ll be thrilled.” So, this project could totally, maybe, happen at Amazon. Stay tuned there.
In June 2023, EW reported that Flanagan followed up on how, out of his entire collection of ongoing projects, The Dark Tower is what “I want to do the most.” Development slowed down during the strikes, “but I think it’s going to happen. I can’t say for certain, but we look good.”
To sum up: if this project fully works out, we could see five TV seasons and some feature films. Fingers crossed.
Cast
As mentioned already, Idris Elba portrayed gunslinger Roland Deschain, and Matthew McConaughey picked up the antagonistic Man in Black role for the 2017 movie. Whereas the failed 2020 series (from showrunner Glen Mazzara) cast Sam Strike as Roland and Jasper Pääkkönen as the Man in Black.
Surely, both of those casting slates shall be wiped clean by Flanagan. He hasn’t articulated that any particular actors are set in stone for the project, but Comic Book reported that frequent Flanagan collaborator Henry Thomas (Fall of the House of Usher, Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Hill House, Doctor Sleep and more) would “love to have a part in that.”
Additionally, Flanagan freaking loves to cast his usual suspects in TV roles, so we can perhaps expect to see Carla Gugino or Kate Siegel, Annabeth Gish, Rahul Kohli, Katie Parker, Samantha Sloyan, and other favorites. Hey, can we see Hamish Linklater as the Man in Black?
Release Date
No planned release date has been pinpointed as far as the public is aware. However, Flanagan seems to (from the above interview snippets) indicate that it’s hopefully only a matter of time before it happens. We also know from his back-to-back Netflix series that the dude works fast, so we’re staying positive on an update soon.
Trailer
Silly rabbit. There’s no way on earth that we could see a Dark Tower trailer when filming hasn’t begun. However, if you haven’t yet watched Doctor Sleep, here’s some encouragement.