Mike Flanagan Teases The Dark Tower TV Series And Refuses To Let The 2017 Movie Be The Last Word
Three years after locking down the rights, Mike Flanagan is teasing his TV vision for Stephen King’s The Dark Tower — and he insists the 2017 movie won’t be the final word.
Mike Flanagan is always juggling a dozen horror plates, but the one he keeps nudging to the front is Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. He and producing partner Trevor Macy locked down the rights about three years ago with the goal of making it a TV event, and while it hasn’t been sprinting, it also hasn’t stalled. Slow turn, steady progress.
Where The Dark Tower stands now
- Flanagan told Empire (via Deadline) the show is moving forward, several scripts are already written, and it’s his top priority.
- He compared the project to an oil tanker: not fast, but once it’s moving, it’s moving.
- His plan hasn’t changed: tell the core story across five seasons, then cap it with two feature films.
- Rights were secured by Flanagan and Trevor Macy about three years ago with the intent to build it for television first.
Yes, that 2017 movie happened
We all remember the Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey film from 2017. Elba’s Roland got plenty of love, but the movie itself? Not so much. It tried to compress a sprawling, multi-book saga into a 95-minute, PG-13 package — which was, generously, a bold decision. The studio positioned it as a continuation of the book series rather than a straight adaptation, with director Nikolaj Arcel explaining that it shared characters and elements but followed a different path. Fans weren’t buying it. The box office cratered, and any sequel ideas went down with the ship.
Our own Chris Bumbray summed up the vibe at the time: it felt like a watered-down, YA-style mash-up of a couple of the books that never found the point. That reaction is exactly what Flanagan wants to correct.
"We can’t let that be the final word. We really can’t."
Why Flanagan’s approach makes more sense
King’s saga is big, weird, and layered — the kind of thing that needs room to breathe and time to get properly strange. Building it as a series first and saving the big swings for a pair of films is the smartest version of this plan I’ve heard yet. It also helps that Flanagan clearly knows he’s stepping into a fandom with scars and is treating the whole thing with the kind of long-game patience the material deserves.
Meanwhile, on the rest of Flanagan’s slate
He’s already wrapped production on a Carrie TV series for Prime Video, and he’s gearing up for a radical new take on The Exorcist with Scarlett Johansson attached to star. So yes, the man is busy — but by his own account, The Dark Tower is the priority, and it’s inching forward exactly the way he wants it to.