The now-greenlit “Dark Tower” prequel/sequel series, based on Stephen King’s prequel/sequel novel “The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass,” will constitute between 10 and 13 hours. It will begin shooting next year and likely premiere in 2018, around the time next February’s “Dark Tower” movie first finds its way to cable or streaming.
“Wizard and Glass” is set partially in the post-influenza-apocalypse 1980s alternate universe depicted in King’s 1978 novel “The Stand.” “True Detective” star Matthew McConaughey reprising his “Dark Tower” role for the TV project is described as “a possibility.” McConaughey’s character looms large in “Wizard and Glass,” but that character is also famous for shapeshifting.
“Dark Tower” movie writers Nikolaj Arcel and Anders Thomas Jensen will script at least part of the TV series.
No one yet knows which streaming outlet or cable channel will air the “Dark Tower” series, but production company MRC already has “House of Cards” on Netflix, so Netflix may be where The Dark Tower series lands.
No stranger to TV, Elba (“The Wire,” “The Office,” “Luther”) will be in the Dark Tower series but may not be in it much. Elba, who plays gunslinger Roland Deschain in Arcel’s big-screen February release “The Dark Tower,” will play Deschain again in a framing device, but a younger actor will reportedly be cast to play a teen Roland in flashbacks that will form the bulk of the TV series.
15-year-old Tom Taylor will reprise his movie role as New Yorker Jake Chambers. The older Roland will tell Jake the tale of teen Roland’s first encounter with a “thinny,” described as “a weak spot in reality” that can potentially transport someone into another universe.
Both Universal and Warner Bros. toyed with the idea of a movie/TV combo adaptation of The Dark Tower saga before it finally landed at Sony.
Both the movie and the TV series could spawn sequels.
Find Entertainment Weekly’s story on the matter here.
