The Dark Tower: Mike Flanagan Sees Potential in Other Stephen King Characters Appearing

As Constant Readers of The Dark Tower book series will know, Stephen King’s epic pulls from and is referenced across all of his other titles. The first attempt at adapting the books for the big screen only hinted at this with barely visible Easter eggs. If Mike Flanagan has his way though, his new swing at bat for The Dark Tower could pull from all corners of the King Universe. In theory at least. Speaking on the Script Apart podcast (H/T Empire), Flanagan opened up about his love for the characters in Doctor Sleep that he got to spend time with as a creative and how they could maybe be brought into The Dark Tower.

“The thing about the King universe is, it’s all connected. And the nexus point of those connections is The Dark Tower,” Flanagan teased. “So I have the rights to that at the moment, I hope I’m able to keep them long enough to get it made, but that’s something else that always affords opportunities. In the Dark Tower universe, there are all these other characters from the King world that come into play in different ways. And that’s one where when you make changes to the source material to introduce characters who could have played a very important role in that story the way it was structured…Doctor Sleep was written after The Dark Tower was finished. Abra Stone in the Dark Tower universe, as a Breaker [telepathic agent], is really interesting.”

He continued, “There’s a character in The Dark Tower named Dandelo, who I think is a cousin of the True Knot, who’s this emotional vampire but who feeds on laughter instead of fear. But there’s room in that world for the True Knot themselves, there’s room for Rose The Hat. There might be room for Danny Torrance. There’s all sorts stuff that could be amazing, if we’re able to get that property on its feet. There’s ways to pull in other things rom the King universe, and I think The Shining universe – the Doctor Sleep universe – could very seamlessly dovetail into it. Especially since, in our movie, Dick Hallorann all but points to The Dark Tower in his last scene with Dan.” 

Flanagan also elaborated on plans that he previously had to expand on the characters of Doctor Sleep. Ahead of the movie’s opening he was developing plans for spinoffs focusing on both Dick Hallorann and an Overlook origin story. Though the door for those projects has largely closed, he did add that “Maybe some of those ideas can find a new way to come back.” As they say, all things serve the beam. 

When it was confirmed that Flanagan had managed to snag the rights to Stephen King’s The Dark Tower it came without confirmation of where the adaptation could land. Despite having an overall deal at Amazon Prime Video, Flanagan confirmed that he could set up The Dark Tower anywhere as it was separate from his Prime contract. There’s currently no guarantee that it will even get made at this point, but should he return to his collaborators at Warner Bros. it might make getting some of these characters in there a little easier. 

(H/T Empire)