Stephen King’s constant readers have been teased with the idea of a sprawling live-action adaptation of The Dark Tower before. In years past, Ron Howard and Universal Pictures had ambitious plans to make the book series into a TV show and feature film franchise that would weave back and forth between movie theaters and home TV screens. That never happened and the 2017 feature film adaptation of The Dark Tower came and went, with plans for an Amazon TV series adaptation fizzling out as well. Now the rights to King’s magnum opus lie with Mike Flanagan, the fan-favorite genre director, who confirms that he is swinging for the fences in a major way.
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In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Flanagan revealed that he will be aiming big for his version of The Dark Tower. When asked by the outlet if his vision for the adaptation was a TV series or as a movie, Flanagan responded: “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. I do see feature components to some of the other stories, but the main storyline is ongoing series.”
For fans of the Stephen King series, this seems like a plan that The Dark Tower series deserves. Composed of eight total books (the eighth released long after the conclusion of the series and nestled chronologically in the middle of the series) the main storyline of The Dark Tower can certainly support a TV series of its own, but what elements should be feature films? It seems likely that the events of The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, which is largely a prequel about the younger years of Roland the Gunslinger, could be spun off into its own standalone movie. The eighth book, The Wind Through the Keyhole, could follow suit, since it largely also set in the past.
It remains to be seen exactly when Flanagan’s version of The Dark Tower will get off the ground, but the filmmaker has alluded to the fact that it is further along than fans might expect. The trouble of course is his busy schedule. Flanagan is attached to direct the next movie in The Exorcist franchise, which is scheduled to be released in 2026, and in the same THR interview Flanagan teased his first TV show for Prime Video is in the works. Where The Dark Tower will fall in these plans is unclear.
Flanagan is in a rare group when it comes to Stephen King adaptations, having directed adaptations of Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and the yet-to-be-released The Life of Chuck. He joins Frank Darabont in having helmed three King adaptations (Darabont himself having directed The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Mist). If Flanagan’s version of The Dark Tower manages to get off the ground, be it Ka’s will, he’ll be in a class of his own.
