Mike Flanagan's The Dark Tower Update Is What Stephen King Fans Have Been Waiting For

3 hours ago 9

Published Oct 16, 2026, 7:30 PM EDT

Faith Roswell is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's Classic TV team. Since earning her degree in Creative Writing over a decade ago, Faith has written articles on film and TV from a variety of different angles. Faith now combines her knowledge of psychology with her love of monster movies to give more insight into what makes the best ones.

You may have read her Screen Rant lists and features covering horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, or read her Amazon Top 10 book, "Movie Monsters of the Deep."

Faith has had an extensive career as a writer, appearing on BBC live radio, researching true crime for Rotten Mango podcast, and writing for publications including Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and The Daily Jaws before beginning here at Screen Rant.

Many of Stephen King's books have been notoriously difficult to adapt due to their extensive lore and large portions of events that take place as psychological battles. The failed attempt to adapt The Dark Tower has been a sore point among fans of the horror legend's work ever since, but while the movie flopped despite starring Idris Elba, one director may have found the key to adapting the series for the screen. Mike Flanagan and Stephen King's projects have a remarkably high success rate, and the latest update about the upcoming Dark Tower TV show promises more good news.

Mike Flanagan's creative partnership with the author began with his adaptation of Gerald's Game, a book that many considered "unfilmable," and he has gone from strength to strength ever since. Carrie has been called "his greatest Stephen King adaptation yet," and with more upcoming collaborations on the way, attention is turning to The Dark Tower. The sprawling series is made up of eight main books, a novella, and a children's book, and Flanagan has now officially confirmed the adaptation order and structure for the Dark Tower TV series in a move that is exactly what fans have been waiting for.

Mike Flanagan Is Adapting The Dark Tower The Only Way It Should Be Adapted

Jake Chambers in The Dark Tower movie, looking at writing on the wall that says "All hail the Crimson King"

The level of excitement from fans and extensive planning from Flanagan is a testament to the optimism surrounding The Dark Tower's adaptation, as the series has not officially been greenlit yet. Still, Flanagan has been open about his ambitions for the series and the approach he intends to follow. He has confirmed that The Dark Tower book series will be adapted chronologically, beginning with the first novel, The Gunslinger, and continuing the story in the same order that King wrote the source material.

This approach will avoid a timing issue that plagued the Dark Tower movie, which became one of the biggest failed book adaptations of all time. Rather than adapting a small portion of the complex saga, the violent and often-disturbing fantasy series was condensed into a PG-13 movie lasting just 95 minutes. This eliminated character development, deep mythology, and key scenes that fans wanted to see brought to life.

King's books build the story up slowly, avoiding confusion by introducing the two main characters and adding one new element at a time. In an interview with The Process Unlocked, Flanagan called the approach "genius," explaining that other attempts go wrong because "you can't throw an audience face-first into this huge universe. It's overwhelming." Flanagan's decision to adapt The Dark Tower chronologically is the only way that the series should be adapted, and reflects his tendency to stay faithful to the spirit and tone of the source material.

The Dark Tower Is Easily Mike Flanagan's Most Ambitious Adaptation Yet

The Gunslinger with the Dark Tower in the background in Stephen King’s book

Just as Stephen King is known as "the king of horror" as an author, Flanagan has gained a reputation for excellent horror visuals, with all but one of Flanagan's upcoming movies and TV shows being horror. That said, while he has clearly found the winning formula for translating Stephen King's works to the screen, his past projects have been on a much smaller scale. Gerald's Game mostly takes place within one room, Carrie is set within a high school, and while Doctor Sleep is a little more experimental, it does not come close to the scale of The Dark Tower.

The Dark Tower series is connected to other Stephen King books, including Salem's Lot, The Stand, and IT.

The Dark Tower is not just a complex story, it is a multi-genre mashup that combines horror, Westerns, religious mythology, and high fantasy into a multiverse, within one interconnected narrative. This would be a challenge for any director, but Flanagan has not yet taken on a project approaching this scale, making it his most ambitious adaptation yet. Even so, his logical approach has already been praised by fans and Flanagan appears to be building up to The Dark Tower, in the same way he intends to direct it. In his own words, "one brick at a time."

Source: The Process Unlocked