Cancelled Dark Tower Series at Amazon Had Extensive Plans for First Three Seasons

Despite being in development for almost four years, it was reported earlier this year that Amazon would not be moving forward on the produced pilot for their television adaptation of Stephen King‘s The Dark Tower. Considering the lengthy amount of time that series showrunner Glen Mazzara was attached to the property and developing it for the small screen, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that he had major plans for the series. What is surprising however is that Mazzara has spilled the beans entirely on what might have been with the series, confirming plans for the the first three seasons of the show that we sadly won’t get to see.

“Season One ended with the death of Susan,” Mazzara said on the latest episode of The Kingcast, confirming much of the first three seasons would focus on the young Roland Deschain as seen in the fourth book of the novel series.

He added, “In Wizard and Glass very quickly you go from the death of Susan to the death of Gabrielle, (Roland’s) mother. I felt that I needed a season to give me real estate so that Gabrielle’s death didn’t step on Susan’s and that it felt like an escalation. Roland fails to save Susan, but he actually shoots and kills his mother. In the book Gabrielle is not really a detailed character in a way that, say, Susan is, or even Rhea is. Gabrielle is really not fleshed out. She just doesn’t have as many pages attributed to her. I love that character. The actress we had for her was Elaine Cassidy, a fantastic Irish actress, and she did a really great job.”

Mazzara went on to further describe the planned second seas, which focused on events implied in the books but not explicitly seen. This would lead into the third season which would have transitioned from a young Roland to the adult version of the character and lead right into the first two novels of the book series.

“So for Season 2, the war with Farson was building. I was maybe going to use the shapeshifter story (from The Wind Through the Keyhole) as part of season 2 and get to the death of Gabrielle and either the fall of Gilead there or the fall of Gilead would be the season three premiere. Very quickly there would be a last stand at Jericho Hill and by episode 3.03 or 3.04 I was going to have Roland stumble out into the desert, follow him into the desert and then I was going to do a time lapse so that maybe you actually age Roland and switch actors. Then you have a new Roland reset the show at the top of season three, then go into The Gunslinger and by the end of that season go into The Drawing of Three.”

Beyond those major reveals for the first three seasons, Mazzara was less forthcoming about broad plans for the series. The writer did reveal some of the things from the series that he was most excited to bring into live action like Blaine the Mono and Father Callahan (noting that he hoped to do an entire mini-series focusing on Callahan’s backstory).

Mazzara also posited whether he might get in trouble with Marvel since the dreaded “Wolves of Thunderclap” from the book series are modeled after Doctor Doom from the pages of Fantastic Four comics. He concluded that he didn’t think any of the contents of the books series would have been impossible to adapt. Listen to the full episode of The Kingcast to learn even more.

What do you think of these reveals for the proposed Dark Tower TV series? Sound off in the comments below and talk to me on Twitter about all things Dark Tower @TheSpencerPerry.