THE DARK TOWER Gets A Promising Update From Mike Flanagan As He Vows Not To Let Stephen King Down

THE DARK TOWER Gets A Promising Update From Mike Flanagan As He Vows Not To Let Stephen King Down

Mike Flanagan recently adapted another Stephen King novel in The Life of Chuck, and the twisted mind behind Netflix's The Fall of the House of Usher has now shared an update on plans for The Dark Tower.

By JoshWilding - Jun 03, 2025 06:06 PM EST
Filed Under: Sci-Fi
Source: SFFGazette.com

2017's The Dark Tower had all the makings of a great movie and was meant to kickstart a new franchise that expanded across theaters and streaming. Unfortunately, it was a mess that not even A-List leads Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey could save. 

As a result, the property, which is based on an incredible series of novels by Stephen King, fell by the wayside. With a worldwide box office haul of $113.2 million on a reported $66 million budget, it's easy to see why most studios had little interest in picking up where the movie left off. 

Filmmaker Mike Flanagan, who has previously adapted King novels Gerald's Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck, announced that he'd optioned the rights for a potential Prime Video series in late 2022. 

He's shared a few minor updates since then, confirming that he's written scripts for the series. Talking to ComicBook.com (via SFFGazette.com), Flanagan didn't provide a concrete timeline for the start of production, but assured fans that he remains hard at work on what sounds like an ambitious adaptation.

"It's not that I've put it down. It's just that the thing is so big, it's like building an oil tanker," Flanagan said of his approach to The Dark Tower. "We've been moving it forward this whole time. It's just, that's how big it is. It's constantly in the works, and you better believe as often as you guys may want to ask about it, Stephen King is asking me about it more, and I'm not gonna let him down."

In 2022, Flanagan confirmed that his take on The Dark Tower will run "at least five seasons." He added, "I have a pilot script I’m thrilled with and a very detailed outline for the first season and a broader outline for the subsequent seasons."

"I’ve dreamed about this. That first shot which comes right off at the first incredible sentence of the first book, The Gunslinger, I’ve had that image just rattling around in my head since I was an undergrad," Flanagan continued. "It’s going to have to get out of there eventually, I really need to get it out of my head. The pilot script is one of my favorite things I’ve ever gotten to work on."

The Dark Tower will need to be a hit for any streamer to commit to telling this story over multiple seasons, and Flanagan will likely have to deliver one batch of episodes at a time. It's a complex story that will likely require a big budget; fortunately, enough time has passed since the 2017 movie that this take would feel like something new. 

Flanagan, however, has found huge success on streaming with his Netflix series, The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher.

Incorporating themes from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western, The Dark Tower tells the story of a "gunslinger" and his quest toward a tower, the nature of which is both physical and metaphorical.

The series established King's Multiverse and, in doing so, links together many of his other novels (long before Hollywood caught on to the idea). 

As always, stay tuned for updates on The Dark Tower as we have them.

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BobGarlen
BobGarlen - 6/3/2025, 6:32 PM
I'd love to see Boyd Holbrook as either the Man in Black or Roland. If Holbrook did play Roland, we'd need Walton Goggins as The Man in Black.
1stDalek
1stDalek - 6/3/2025, 6:35 PM
If he does it right, it won't be too bad if it only gets a season because The Gunslinger is perfect little 1-off book, it has a clear story arc told from beginning to end that it perfectly stands on its own.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 6/3/2025, 7:20 PM
@1stDalek - I dont know about that...

I mean, the Oracle? The crap the Man in Black tells him?

It ends setting the stage for a lot of things to come.
1stDalek
1stDalek - 6/5/2025, 2:39 AM
@CorndogBurglar - While yes, you're right that the end is good sequel set-up, but the meat of the story is a fairly straightforward chase story and the Man in Black gets his definitive end at the end (before it got retconned in the sequels). I think it would still work rather than feel like you're only getting a weird incomplete story.
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/3/2025, 6:37 PM
Pro tip.

Don't raceswap or genderswap the characters.
WhatIfRickJames
WhatIfRickJames - 6/3/2025, 6:57 PM
@MakeAmericaGrea - Are you a professional where your opinion matters?

Please state where your work can be seen and respected.
bobevanz
bobevanz - 6/3/2025, 7:01 PM
Pro tip: don't listen to @MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/3/2025, 7:01 PM
@WhatIfRickJames -

Of course my opinion matters.

If it didn't, there would be no need for dozens of libs to talk mad shit at me.
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/3/2025, 7:03 PM
@bobevanz -

Pro tip:

You couldn't not listen to me if you tried.

Communist News Network's own poll shows President Donald John Trump is winning big.
WhatIfRickJames
WhatIfRickJames - 6/3/2025, 7:37 PM
@MakeAmericaGrea - User Comment Image
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/3/2025, 7:40 PM
@WhatIfRickJames -

Good news, ladies, and gentlemen, President Donald John Trump's approval rating is up.

Inflation is down.

Wages are up.

President Trump's tariffs are not the disaster that communists and Marxists lied that they would be.
WhatIfRickJames
WhatIfRickJames - 6/3/2025, 7:46 PM
@MakeAmericaGrea - that’s where you’re so crippling ingnorant. I know many people in a bunch of Trump friendly industries that are decimated by his stupid policies but you only believe the info that has been spoon fed to you by the weird echo chambers that dwell in.
OriginalGusto1
OriginalGusto1 - 6/3/2025, 7:58 PM
@WhatIfRickJames - Not to be "that guy", comics movies...not politics.
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/3/2025, 8:00 PM
@WhatIfRickJames -

"that’s where you’re so crippling ingnorant".

Did you mean:

"That’s where you’re so cripplingly ingnorant"?

"I know many people in a bunch of Trump friendly industries that are decimated by his stupid policies".

The industries had a tenth of their capabilities destroyed?

What are these industries?

Target?

Bud Light?

MSNBC?

The Harris - Walz merchandise warehouse?
WhatIfRickJames
WhatIfRickJames - 6/3/2025, 8:15 PM
@MakeAmericaGrea -

Crippling/cripplingly

Yeah, autocorrect is tough at times. Thank you for pointing out my spelling faults, ma’am.
RolandD
RolandD - 6/3/2025, 6:45 PM
Finally, an update. Every time I see something about Flanagan working on this or that in my head I’m like
User Comment Image
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/3/2025, 8:51 PM
@RolandD -

Hopefully he does a good job with The Dark Tower.

Libs:

MJ can look like anyone!

Perry White can look like anyone!

Taskmaster can look like anyone!

Snape can look like anyone!

Hermione can look like anyone!

Reed can look like anyone!

Silver Surfer can look like anyone!

Death can look like anyone!

Ariel can look like anyone!

Snow White can look like anyone!

Oh my gosh, a blonde actress with blue eyes, she looks just like Zelda, no one else could possibly play her!
Antitrollpatrol
Antitrollpatrol - 6/3/2025, 11:02 PM
@MakeAmericaGrea - my gosh dude. Every single comment you make on here is just to spread hatred and vitriol in this community. The people here that frequent these sites really want these movies to turn out good regardless of political opinion. Just stop being a parasite to the people that actually want to enjoy this stuff. If you want to talk politics go to Facebook or x and spew your rhetoric there.
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/4/2025, 11:04 PM
@Antitrollpatrol -

Wait, what?

I don't spread hatred and vitriol.

I really want these movies to turn out good.

That's why I'm the one here who makes the most effort to make that happen.
Batmangina
Batmangina - 6/3/2025, 7:04 PM
THE MOVIE WASN'T THAT BAD.

User Comment Image
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/3/2025, 7:10 PM
@Batmangina -

Somehow that didn't inspire me to watch it for the first time.
CorndogBurglar
CorndogBurglar - 6/3/2025, 7:21 PM
@Batmangina - The movie was horrendous in almost every possible way.

Batmangina
Batmangina - 6/3/2025, 7:56 PM
@CorndogBurglar - User Comment Image
MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/3/2025, 8:02 PM
@Batmangina -

The filmmakers are racist.
RolandD
RolandD - 6/3/2025, 8:23 PM
@Batmangina - Seven, some very long books in a 90 minute movie. Tell me how good it was.
Batmangina
Batmangina - 6/3/2025, 8:34 PM
@RolandD - I didn't say it was GOOD, I said it wasn't BAD.

User Comment Image
RolandD
RolandD - 6/3/2025, 8:52 PM
@Batmangina - Point taken. I never saw it because being a huge fan of the novels, I think that I would have been so disappointed. Maybe I will watch it someday.
Batmangina
Batmangina - 6/3/2025, 9:30 PM
@RolandD - Don't get me wrong, The Gunslinger came out when I was 14 or 15 and an absolute disciple of Stephen King at the time - I [frick]ING LOVED that book.

I remember thinking everything up to Wizard and Glass was perfect - then it was kinda scattershot from there.

He's lost his mind in recent years...
RolandD
RolandD - 6/3/2025, 9:52 PM
@Batmangina - The first time I tried to read The Gunslinger, I just couldn’t get into it. my roommate had turned me onto Stephen King and I bought a secondhand copy of this book and it just didn’t resonate with me. That was clearly before he rewrote or added to the book although I don’t know if it made that much of the difference. When I came around to it around, I don’t know 10 or 15 years ago, I couldn’t get enough of it.
RolandD
RolandD - 6/3/2025, 9:53 PM
@Batmangina - I can’t agree with the loss his mind that though. He’s written some excellent books since then such as the Mercedes killer trilogy.
ProfessorWhy
ProfessorWhy - 6/4/2025, 3:22 AM
@Batmangina - we're about the same ageand my we're with King and The Gunslinger was similar. I kept reading him even as his work dipped. The guy really had a problem with individual voices and endings..... yet his looped ending to The Gunslinger series is a favorite of mine, with Roland Damned by his inability to keep Cuthbert's horn
Batmangina
Batmangina - 6/4/2025, 7:43 AM
@RolandD - The last thing he did that I thought was top shelf was the 2008 collection with 'N' in it.
TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 6/3/2025, 7:04 PM
Well , it’s good to know that he’s still working on it even if it may be on the back burner as opposed to the Carrie tv show and new Exorcist film he’s doing.

I have never read the novels but the world from what I know has always sounded fascinating to me so I hope to do so asap…

It’s unfortunate that the movie was a dud since it had potential imo but hopefully this turns out better if/when it happens which I think it will given the care Flanagan seems to be putting in it.
RolandD
RolandD - 6/3/2025, 8:28 PM
@TheVisionary25 - I wholeheartedly recommend reading the books. I love this series which one can tell by my username. It is Stephen King’s version of.The Lord of the Rings, and that it is an epic tail, but a completely different story. In typical, self deprecating fashion he doesn’t hold it up to be the quality of the Lord of the Rings, but it was his stab at an epic tale. The characters and their epic journey are part of what make it for me.


TheVisionary25
TheVisionary25 - 6/3/2025, 8:29 PM
@RolandD - User Comment Image
RolandD
RolandD - 6/3/2025, 8:49 PM
@TheVisionary25 - LOLO. I just re-watched that movie.
StSteven
StSteven - 6/4/2025, 10:31 PM
@TheVisionary25 - I believe that @RolandD and I have talked about our mutual love for the series (particularly as I was introduced to it by one of my best friends in high school who went by the nickname of "Roland" because of his love for the books), and, yeah, it's that great (I'd venture to say even better than LotR for various reasons). Here are a couple of interesting facts that you might like about it (spoiler free):

- He started writing the first of the 7 main novels in 1978 and it took him 4 years (during the time when he was... "self-medicating" quite a bit). The whole thing was essentially a pet project of his, until it wasn't (see next point)
- By the time he got to Book IV, the series had become so popular that people were literally camping out in front of book stores for the release of that book (the first time that I can recall that happening). This became the premise for the movie "In the Mouth of Madness" where a writer (named Sutter Kane - get it?) has become SO famous and SO many people have read his books that the general population believes the version of reality that is in his books (you should definitely check out the movie if you haven't)
- While the first book starts off as a pretty straight-forward "cowboy badass guy on a quest" kind of story (with some fantastical elements), it gets increasingly weirder with each successive book (in a good way) and by the time you get to Book IV he starts pulling in characters from other novels he's written to the point where if you were in college or whatever at the time you'd likely be sitting around with your buddies getting stoned and going "Wait wait wait... how the f**k are _______ and ________ and ______ even in this book?!? And what's with that crazy-ass train?!?"
- Don't get me wrong, it all makes sense but still even near the end he pulls in probably the last character you'd ever expect, and for me I had to put the book down and get up and take a break because I was like "Holy f**k! Did he just- ?!? I mean... holy f**k!!!". Yeah, it's THAT good.
- This is generally regarded as King's magnum opus (and I firmly believe that it is), and it's also been regarded as unfilmable (I'm sure folks also said the same thing about LotR), and you'll see why folks would say that, but I trust Flanagan to get as close as anyone reasonably can. With that in mind, the 2017 film with Elba was, in my opinion, not anywhere even remotely close to how awesome the books are, so I really hope Flanagan knocks this out of the park, regardless of how long it takes.

@RolandD Did I leave anything out worth mentioning or mischaracterize anything? It's been almost 2 decades since I finished the series so I'm going off memory here.
StSteven
StSteven - 6/5/2025, 1:09 AM
@RolandD - Ha! Same here. Started my way through rewatching the MCU movies a couple of weeks ago. Just finished "CA:WS". Such a damn good movie. Watching "CA:CW" as we speak. Great as well. Cheers!🍻
DocSpock
DocSpock - 6/3/2025, 7:07 PM

Great news!!

The first attempt at this great property was a senselessly warped pile of crap.

MakeAmericaGrea
MakeAmericaGrea - 6/3/2025, 7:10 PM
@DocSpock -

Everything communists touch turns to 💩.
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