The Dark Tower TV series is in development at Amazon. While the series was originally planned to tie into the 2017 film, that is no longer the plan, according to Stephen King in an interview with Vulture.
“The TV series they’re developing now … we’ll see what happens with that. It would be like a complete reboot, so we’ll just have to see,” said King.
Glen Mazzara, who previously helmed The Walking Dead season 3, has been brought on as showrunner. Stephen Hopkins (Predator 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street 5) will direct the pilot.
Akiva Goldsman, who produced and co-wrote the film adaptation, will executive produce, along with Jeff Pinkner, Ron Howard, and Brian Grazer. Nikolaj Arcel, who directed The Dark Tower movie, and screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen wrote a script for the pilot and will also executive produce.
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Of course, it’s unclear if Amazon plans to move forward with Arcel and Jensen’s script now that the film has turned out to be a failure. That pilot was said to feature Idris Elba, who played Roland in the movie, and Tom Taylor, who played Jake. It’s unclear what their involvement will be at this point. Mazzara might prefer to start from scratch completely. MRC and Sony Pictures, which also released the film in 2017, will finance a 10-13 episode first season.
The Dark Tower TV Series Cast
Sam Strike (Nightflyers) is your new Gunslinger! The actor will play the lead role of Roland Deschain in Amazon’s Dark Tower TV series.
Jasper Pääkkönen (Vikings) will co-star on the series. While his role was not confirmed, it is believed that he will portray Roland’s rival, the Man in Black, a.k.a. Marten Broadcloak or Randall Flagg.
Jerome Flynn (Game of Thrones) has been cast in an undisclosed role. Some believe that he’s playing Eldred Jonas, the leader of a group of bandits known as the Big Coffin Hunters.
The Dark Tower TV Series Release Date
No release date has been set for The Dark Tower TV series. The series will air on Amazon Prime.
The Dark Tower TV Series Story
The show will reportedly flesh Roland’s origin story and his first adventure as a young gunslinger from the fourth book in the series, Wizard and Glass.
In 2017, MRC released a cool promo that teased the setting of the show. It’s a map of the different places in the Barony of Mejis, where most of Wizard and Glass takes place:
Roland’s instructor, Cort, and his original ka-tet, Cuthbert and Alain, will reportedly appear on the show, although none of those roles have been cast yet.
John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9.
Joseph Baxter is a contributor for Den of Geek and Syfy Wire. You can find his work here. Follow him on Twitter @josbaxter.