‘The Dark Tower’: Stephen King Provides New Update on Mike Flanagan’s Adaptation!!

Stephen King adaptations have become a dime-a-dozen, but one of the more difficult ones to make has been an adaptation of his classic novel series The Dark Tower. But King has recently provided an update on the next iteration of these books, which are set to be turned into a television series by horror auteur Mike Flanagan. While details on the series remain slim, King himself seems to have high praise for Flanagan‘s work.

While storylines are unknown, King talked about the series itself on an episode of the King-centered podcast, The Kingcast. Flanagan is “the King Whisperer,” King joked on the podcast. The horror master also revealed that he had seen scripts for the series, as well as pitches for certain aspects of it. King seemed to laud the work being done by Flanagan, adding:

“I’ve seen screenplays and pitches, and [Flanagan] starts where he should start, and the beats are perfect. Just perfect.”

It Has Been a Long Road for ‘The Dark Tower’

King‘s novel series has not been without its faults and flaws. Unlike most of his works, which are straight horror books, The Dark Tower franchise follows a gunslinger, Roland Deschain, who lives in a Western world incorporating fantastical elements. As a gunslinger, Deschain embarks on a mission to find the mythical Dark Tower located at the center of the universe. Through eight novels and short stories, the quest for the Dark Tower becomes a wide-ranging epic.

The franchise was originally adapted into a film in 2017, starring Idris Elba as Deschain alongside Matthew McConaughey. Directed by Nikolaj Arcel, the film spent years in development at numerous different studios, and the end result was a film that was mildly successful at the box office, but critically panned. That year, King told Collider he had hopes for a sequel film to Arcel‘s adaptation. “There are things that I think the hardcore fans are going to wish was in the movie and all I can say is, if the movie’s a success, there will be a sequel,” King said. While this didn’t pan out, Flanagan boarded the television series in 2022, aiming for a multi-season release based on the different books in the series. Time will tell if this comes to fruition.