Mike Flanagan Says His Dark Tower TV Series Will Stay Faithful to Stephen King’s Books

Stephen King’s Dark Tower series has a reputation as one of the hardest stories to adapt. It spans a multiverse of worlds across several long novels, so where do you start? Mike Flanagan says the answer is simple. You start at the beginning. Flanagan created The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass. He also made Prime Video’s recent adaptation of Carrie.

Flanagan shared new details about his previously announced Dark Tower adaptation in an interview with The Process Unlocked. The interviewer asked which work had been the most challenging to adapt. Flanagan’s answer surprised the interviewer. He said Warhammer was the trickiest.

Mike Flanagan is confident about adapting The Dark Tower

Flanagan said The Dark Tower was not his hardest adaptation. In his view, King’s novels already ease newcomers into the story.

“You do the books. Stephen King is genius in how he structures The Dark Tower. It’s one of the most perfect opening lines of any book. ‘The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.’ It’s two characters, there’s a clear objective — one is running away, one is pursuing — and it’s a desert, there’s nothing else to look at. It’s so simple and so clean. On top of that foundation, he adds a universe one brick at a time.”

He also criticized other approaches to the material.

“The problem with the other approaches is people who try to jump in the middle, or people who try to jump in at a different point. Because you can’t throw an audience face-first into this huge universe. It’s overwhelming. King did it right, he walked you in, starting with two people and nothing else, and walks you in one step at a time. So my adaptation was that. It was just doing the books, and doing them in order.”

Those comments confirm that the adaptation will begin with the first book, 1982’s The Gunslinger. It will then continue through the rest of the series.

What other details do we know about Mike Flanagan’s The Dark Tower adaptation?

Flanagan announced in December 2022 that he had acquired the rights to develop a television series based on the books. He has since said he hopes the show will run for five seasons, one for each of the first five books. It would then close with two movies covering the last two novels. Flanagan’s Intrepid Pictures will produce the show, which falls under his ongoing deal with Prime Video.

The project has taken a long time. Flanagan recently told ScreenRant why. The Dark Tower references other Stephen King novels, which makes the legal situation incredibly messy. His team has been working to acquire the rights to portray many of those characters. “We’re still pushing forward. It’s an oil tanker of a project,” Flanagan said.

A 2017 movie adaptation starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey already exists. Fans will still have to wait a while longer to see Roland the Gunslinger back on screen.

Related: Carrie showrunner says the biggest changes to the book were Stephen King’s idea

Source: Polygon