Stephen King Gives The Dark Tower Season 1 Scripts His Seal of Approval

Mike Flanagan has been chasing The Dark Tower for years, and his white whale just inched closer to shore: season 1 scripts exist, and Stephen King loves them. That is a meaningful update for a project that has been circling for a while.

Where things stand

Flanagan and Trevor Macy’s Intrepid Pictures moved from its Netflix era into an exclusive multiyear overall series deal with Amazon MGM Studios, and The Dark Tower is one of the crown jewels they’re building for Prime Video. The show was officially announced three years ago. Scripts for the first season are finished; a production start is still TBD.

'The scripts for the first season are wonderful. I am so happy with them. Stephen King is very happy with them. He’s been through it with his adaptations. He’ll tell you he’s not pleased. And this one means more to him than any of the others, so the pressure is huge.'

How Flanagan got the keys to Mid-World

This all started when Flanagan sent King what he describes as 'a very, very detailed outline' for the series. King liked the approach enough to hand over the rights. Flanagan’s stance has been consistent: he only wants in if the adaptation stays true to King’s intent, and King has been supportive and energized by the plan. Given how personal The Dark Tower is to King, that buy-in matters.

The busy Flanagan/King pipeline

Flanagan is already deep in King Country: Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck are on his resume. He’s also in post-production on an eight-episode series take on Carrie. Earlier this week brought another curveball: he’s writing and directing a new film version of The Mist. But before that hits, he’s making a new Exorcist sequel. And if you remember the abandoned Revival movie he was setting up at Warner Bros. a while back—that one collapsed.

What The Dark Tower actually is

King wove a ton of his stories into the orbit of this saga, but the core run is its own beast. If you’re keeping score, the mainline entries are:

• The Gunslinger
• The Drawing of the Three
• The Waste Lands
• Wizard and Glass
• The Wind Through the Keyhole
• Wolves of the Calla
• Song of Susannah
• The Dark Tower
• The Little Sisters of Eluria (short story)

Flanagan calling these scripts wonderful is one thing; King being 'very happy' is the headline. Now we wait for casting news and a schedule to match the ambition.