With a cinematic version of ‘The Dark Tower‘ changing up the story and giving us a new telling and continuation of the novels, the tie-in TV series will be closer to the source material. The details came from director Nikolaj Arcel who is still stating that the television show will run between films but with development not having started, one has to wonder if it will even happen if the first movie flops or how far out the sequel would be.
When talking about the status of the series Arcel does share that it will be “totally canon.” This was always the concept from the start as the series was supposed to be the connective juice between the films and tell more of Roland’s backstory:
“It’s being written. I was part of writing the pilot, like the first season ideas and the pilot and the second episode. It’s gonna be awesome. What was exciting about that, whereas with the film, we were really trying to create an introduction and make a standalone film that could sort of live in itself, but what was also exciting, working on the TV show at the same time, is that is totally canon.”
As to how closely they want to follow the novels and which ones we’ll be seeing on the small screen if this does happen:
“We’re going back in the past. It’s very, very closely adhering to the ‘Wizard and Glass’ novel and parts of ‘The Gunslinger’ novel. That was exciting to be even more like, ‘Okay, now we’re going to be able to even lift lines directly, or like [write] characters exactly as they are.’ Which, as a fan, was exciting in a different way.”
It still lines up that we’ll be seeing Idris Elba telling the story of his youth which will have a younger Roland who has yet to be cast acting out the tale. Likely, he’ll be telling the story to Tom Taylor’s Jake Chambers around a campfire as they travel. If this story is being told while the pair chase after Matthew McConaughey’s The Man in Black, we might also see him appear in the bookend episodes.
Honestly, while all roads lead to The Dark Tower, if the movie doesn’t lead audiences to theaters then I wouldn’t expect to see this series actually get greenlit from the studio.
Do you like this concept for an ongoing show based on ‘The Dark Tower’ which would take place between films? Will the movie be a hit or a box office failure? Share your thoughts below!
Source: Slash Film
