Stephen King recently announced a new project he's working on, and it could finally solve a Dark Tower canon issue that has plagued Constant Readers for years. "I'm back in Mid-World...and the Territories," he wrote on X/Twitter. "Don't know if it will develop into anything--I never know--but it's good to be back." Those who have read King for a while know that that is referencing a few of Stephen King's most beloved books with The Dark Tower series and The Talisman, which he co-wrote with the late Peter Straub.
Often, when King dives back into a familiar world from one of his novels after years have passed, it's because he either has a sequel story that is burning a hole in his brain, or there are some continuity errors he wants to clear up. He did it previously, for example, with the revised and expanded edition of the Dark Tower book The Gunslinger, and he's recently written a sequel to Cujo with the short story "Rattlesnakes" in You Like It Darker. It could very well be the case with his new project that he'll kill two birds with one stone and offer a new sequel story while fixing some canon inconsistencies.
Stephen King's New Project Could Finally Tie Together Mid-world & The Territories
It Seems Poised To Bring Two Separate Worlds Together
Longtime readers were immediately excited by King's tweet because it promised a return to not one, but two beloved places in Stephen King's fictional universe: Mid-world and the Territories. It's an exciting development, not the least of which because it hints that we're getting either a new Dark Tower book or The Talisman 3 book King had teased last year.
Either way, it appears that the story will take place in both of those locations, bringing together two beloved King works. Considering how well the worlds line up, it's hard to understand why it hasn't happened already; The Dark Tower and The Talisman seem tailor-made to work together in a story. If the new story idea does work out and the book gets written, bringing those two worlds together could finally solve a plot hole that has bothered readers for years.
Connecting Both Settings Would Solve A Dark Tower Canon Plot Hole From Years Ago
Is The Talisman Part Of The Dark Tower Story?
Stephen King's Dark Tower series is his magnum opus, but, like most sprawling lore that evolves over decades, later entries have contradicted earlier works and created plot holes. The Talisman sequel Black House is one of those. Originally, when The Talisman was published in 1984, it had no connection to King's Dark Tower story. Roland's Mid-world was completely separate from the Territories through which Jack Sawyer traveled in The Talisman. Black House, however, really muddied those canonical waters.
Black House
was also co-written with Peter Straub, who King has revealed gave him ideas for a third Talisman story before he passed.
Unlike The Talisman, when adult Jack traveled back to The Territories in Black House, this time, there were numerous references to the world of The Dark Tower, from objects like the speaking stones to references to the Little Sisters of Eluria from The Wind Through the Keyhole. It even referenced Roland and the gunslingers, as well as the Dark Tower and the Beams. Since then, it's been unclear if The Talisman is officially a part of the Dark Tower universe, or if the Territories is one of the universes canonically served by the tower. If the new project unfolds in both Mid-world and the Territories, it could very well find Stephen King cleaning up the canon and officially explaining how they are connected.
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