It’s been a while since we heard anything about Mike Flanagan’s The Dark Tower series, not a surprise given he’s making a Carrie series (more on that later), penned DC’s Clayface movie and is developing a new take on The Exorcist, not to mention The Life of Chuck hitting cinemas, but he wants us to know that he’s still developing The Dark Tower and has shared some new details.
Based on Stephen King’s monumental eight-book series, The Dark Tower tells the story of Roland Deschain of Gilead, the last of the line of Gunslingers who is on a timeless journey to find and save the Dark Tower, a structure at the very centre of reality that holds the darkness at bay and allows all worlds to exist. It is under attack from the forces of evil led by Randall Flagg and only Roland and his new band of Gunslingers, his Ka-Tet, can save all realities, all worlds and all people.
Stephen King says he’s writing on The Dark Tower series and adds that no, he’s not
It’s pretty damn epic and Flanagan, who has been developing for some time, decibes it as massive, saying “it’s like building an oil tanker,” with the plan being five TV seasons and two movies to tell the whole story.
On his recent lack of updates – he loves talking about the Dark Tower and King’s work in general, Flanagan says: “We’ve been moving it forward this whole time. It’s just how big it is. It’s constantly in the works, and you better believe as often as you guys may want to ask about it, Stephen King is asking me about it more, and I’m not gonna let him down.”
Amazon has started filming its Dark Tower series and Michael Rooker has joined the cast
Three years ago, after the failed movie with Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey, which most fans won’t even talk about, Flanagan had a pilot script finished along with a very detailed outline for season one and a broader outline for how the whole tale would be told: “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.
TIDBIT:
Trailer for The Institute series, based on King’s novel of the same name.
When 12-year-old genius Luke Ellis is kidnapped, he awakens at The Institute, a facility full of children who all got there the same way he did, and who are all possessed of unusual abilities. In a nearby town, haunted former police officer Tim Jamieson (Barnes) has come looking to start a new life, but the peace and quiet won’t last, as his story and Luke’s are destined to collide.
The Institute premieres on MGM+ on July 13th, 2025.
“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.”
The problem with starting an adventure as big as The Dark Tower is that at anytime the streaming service, which is likely where it will go, could cancel at any time and with one bad movie and a failed pilot already under the bridge, I’m not sure the fans could do this for a third time.
However, with The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher under his belt already, Flanagan is no stranger to streaming TV series.
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One of the big issues Flanagan will have to get around long before the Dark Tower is in sight, is rights issues because King’s books borrow heavily from his other stories with familiar characters coming and going throughout the Tower’s books, something that isn’t possible in TV series/movie due to other studios owning some of them.
Then, the other rights issue revolves around the fact that King interwove aspects of Harry Potter, The Wizard of Oz, Marvel Comics and much more throughout the story, franchises that it’s almost certain will not lend themselves to the movies or TV show.
And that’s not even talking about the fact that King wrote himself into the story!
“I’m aiming for something… it can’t be what’s in the book, it’s not logistically possible,” Flanagan told the Kingslayer Podcast. “And I think to the cinematic audience, they’re not going to pick up on ‘Insomnia’ the way Constant Readers are. What you need from that is a character with psychic ability, who’s going to be brought in as one of the Breakers, and it’s going to be really important how you deal with that. What are the other characters in the King universe that could fulfill a role like that and get the fans excited, even though you’re changing it?
Edgar Wright and Glen Powell celebrate wrapping on The Running Man
“For me, I’m like what about Abra Stone? When you go into the what if you can’t get Father Callahan, which is always a thing that comes up, and I think we can, but what if you can’t, well who can fill that role? Who’s a character that’s presumed dead in another King story who can come into this story and have a similar arc of redemption? Do you go to Dick Hallorann? I’m just saying, what do you do here?”
Flanagan knows that King fans are rabid about these books and the wider universe King wove with all his stories long before anyone even said the word ‘multiverse’ but he also knows that, thankfully, most of these issues don’t resent themselves until further into the story: “Most of those decisions don’t have to play into the first couple seasons. Luckily, the gift of The Dark Tower is if you do it right, and you start at the beginning, you’re dealing with one character following another character in a barren wasteland, where there’s not even a structure to distract you. It is one person following another person. It’s very simple, and everything is added.
“And it’s added at the right cadence that you’re meeting new characters, and the world is expanding, so that by the time you’re arguing about what to do with Father Callahan, and to what extent the Emerald City is going to come into play, by then you’ve already built enough of this that the audience is with you whether they’re familiar with the source material. That’s what makes it so goddamned challenging to do.”
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Even as a younger man reading these novels, I knew that when the Wolves were using Snitches from the Harry Potter books in Wolves of the Calla and wearing outfits that were modelled on Doctor Doom, this story would be a challenge to put on screen over rights issues, let alone anything else.
King’s Dark Tower encompasses dozens of his books and the books of others, it weaves pop culture and real-world events into its long, complicated tapestry in a masterful way but sadly, this will all make the storytelling onscreen verym very difficult, that said Flanagan and no doubt King too, are aware of this from the onset and it seems like they’re already writing around it and discussing usage rights with studios, publishers etc.
TIDBIT:
Flanagan was set to begin his Exorcist movie soon, however, he says that Carrie is top priority and The Exorcist will not make its projected release date of March 2026: “Production hasn’t started. We need to finish Carrie first. No way it’s coming out next March. Nothing to worry about though.”
Before any of this happens, Flanagan will be bringing King’s first masterpiece Carrie to the small screen with Prime Video. Starring Summer H Howell as Carrie White, it will also star Matthew Lillard as Principal Grayle, Amber Midthunder as Miss Desjardin, Samantha Sloyan as Margaret White, Alison Thornton as Chris Hargensen, Thalia Dudek as Emaline, Siena Agudong as Sue Snell, Josie Totah as Tina, Arthur Conti as Billy and Joel Oulette as Tommy. The thing is too, that Carrie is linked to the Dark Tower too… maybe Flanagan is already looking abuilding out one massive, cohesive King universe starting with Carrie.
I know that’s what I would want to do. And see.
Thoughts? I know you have them and I wanna hear ’em all.
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Source: SFGazette, Bloody Disgusting, Screenrant
Marc
Marc is a self-confessed nerd. Ever since seeing Star Wars for the first time around 1979 he’s been an unapologetic fan of the Wars and still believes, with Clone Wars and now Underworld, we are yet to see the best Star Wars. He’s a dad of two who now doesn’t have the time (or money) to collect the amount of toys, comics, movies and books he once did, much to the relief of his long-suffering wife. In the real world he’s a graphic designer. He started Following the Nerd because he was tired of searching a million sites every day for all the best news that he loves and decided to create one place where you can go to get the whole lot. Secretly he longs to be sitting in the cockpit of his YT-1300 Corellian Transport ship with his co-pilot Chewie, roaming the universe, waiting for his next big adventure, but feels just at home watching cartoons with his kids….
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