Glen Mazzara Addresses How The Dark Tower Series Would Have Handled Stephen King’s Appearance

Despite the series not going anywhere, this week has brought a treasure trove of information about Amazon‘s cancelled TV adaptation of The Dark Tower. Series showrunner Glen Mazzara has revealed a number of details about the series, offering a beat-by-beat breakdown of the first episode and the broad strokes of what the first three seasons would have been. He also touched on one of the most controversial elements of the novel series by Stephen King, which is when the author himself appears as a character in the later books. While speaking on the latest episode of The Kingcast, Mazzara said he “didn’t think any of it was impossible (to adapt),” including an appearance by King.

“I would’ve crossed that bridge when I come to it,” Mazzara said of the author’s critical moments in the books. “Or if Stephen was up for it we would’ve done it, or I would’ve cast someone to play Stephen King…I did think it would be funny if I had my cameo there, like I come in, like I’m sort of an Igor character and Stephen King just throws a bottle at me…But if Stephen King’s gonna be a character in the books, I felt like I had to be a character in the show…I just thought that (Stephen King) hitting me in the head with a bottle would be a great honor.”

The former showrunner on The Walking Dead confirmed he spent over three years developing the project before it was ultimately cancelled and scrapped by the streaming service. Mazzara further confirmed that his intention with the series was to adapt the books for television and not work as a sequel of sorts to the novels (like the 2017 feature film attempted). That in mind he had a series of rules that he and the writers worked toward, with certain elements from the books that would not be changed.

“I had a rule with the writers that if something was really, really important that we were going to try to make canon work. There was never going to be a version where Roland did not shoot his mom. There was never going to be a version in which Susan lives. There was never going to a version in which Roland doesn’t drop Jake.”

What do you think of Mazzara’s many 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.

(Cover photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images for Warner Bros./Marvel Comics)