Entertainment
Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower’ TV Series Could Be the Next Great Franchise
There are three constants in life: death, taxes, and one of Stephen King‘s books being adapted for film or television. Firestarter, The Shining…all of these books have leaped from the page to the screen, with varying results. But the one King book series that’s always seemed to have the biggest hurdles in making it to the screen is The Dark Tower. The universe-hopping western has often been described as King’s “magnum opus,” and yet it’s hit wall after wall. Even a 2017 film adaptation starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey fell far, far short of expectations.
However, there may be hope on the horizon. A television series is in the works with Mike Flanagan at the helm, with Prime Video as a potential streamer, though there’s no confirmation on where it might actually land. Unlike other attempts to bring The Dark Tower to screens, this might actually stick. For one thing, Flanagan is no stranger to adapting King’s work — he previously directed adaptations of Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep, and the reception those received was enough for King to give him his stamp of approval for the Tower series. But more importantly, television is the one medium that The Dark Tower is perfectly fit for.
The Scale and Scope of ‘The Dark Tower’ Fits Television
The Dark Tower series centers around the adventures of Roland Deschain, the last living gunslinger. Deschain is seeking vengeance against Walter o’Dim — whom he knows as the “Man in Black” — as Walter had an affair with his mother and attempted to manipulate his life. Walter seeks to reach the titular Dark Tower, a nexus point for all realities, and claim its power so that he can become a god. Along the way, Roland forms a group of companions known as a ka-tet and travels to multiple worlds while grappling with the trauma of his past. If you hadn’t already guessed, this is a sprawling, epic story that spans the course of seven books. You couldn’t possibly hope to capture all of that on film.
That kind of scope and scale has proven to work like gangbusters when applied to the medium of television. From Game of Thrones and His Dark Materials on HBO to Shadowhunters on Freeform, television has allowed for these shows to stay faithful to their source material. It’s also proven to be a second chance of sorts for books that had poorly-received film adaptations. Both His Dark Materials and Shadowhunters were previously adapted for the screen, and fared far better in televised form. A similar approach could work wonders for The Dark Tower.
‘The Dark Tower’ Features Plenty of Connections to King’s Previous Works
Another feature that The Dark Tower could take advantage of is the connection to all of King’s previous works. The Man in Black is also the malevolent Randall Flagg, who served as the evil force terrorizing the world in The Stand. Father Callahan, the doomed priest from Salem’s Lot, also encounters Roland and his ka-tet.
“Roland’s story is my Jupiter — a planet that dwarfs all the others… a place of strange atmosphere, crazy landscape, and savage gravitational pull,” King wrote in the afterword for Wizard and Glass. Those words took on a whole new meaning in the final novel, where Roland is implied to meet someone who bears a shocking resemblance to King. Yes, The Dark Tower ends with its protagonist literally meeting his maker. Given the rise of the interconnected universe in storytelling, Flanagan could use these references as a way to enhance the story and also provide a jolt of serotonin for King’s readers.
However, this approach may be blunted by the fact that another show — and one based on King’s work, no less — took a similar approach. The Hulu series Castle Rock attempted to blend together themes and characters from King’s novels into one setting. Some examples include the Shawshank State Penitentiary being a primary location, as well as the characters themselves. Diane “Jackie” Torrance (Jane Levy) is the niece of The Shining protagonist Jack Torrance, and Lizzy Caplan cameos as a young Annie Wilkes, aka the nurse-turned-murderer from Misery. If Flanagan is going to attempt to reference the other books in King’s library, he may have to tread with caution.
Will This Version of ‘The Dark Tower’ Get Off the Ground?
Flanagan’s vision for The Dark Tower is not the first time that the series has been considered for a television adaptation. J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, riding the then-high of Lost, attempted to develop a television version of The Dark Tower that never got off the ground. And Prime Video considered doing an adaptation with The Walking Dead‘s Glen Mazzara at the helm, only to shelve the project in 2020. Flanagan has recently given an update that proves the series is still in early development. He told Entertainment Weekly that the series is one of the “most complicated properties to get started.” He added, “Getting the green light on Dark Tower is a much longer and more involved process than anything else I’ve ever approached in my life.” Flanagan has a long road ahead of him still, but a long journey never stopped Roland, so why should it stop Flanagan?
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