What better way to ring in Stephen King’s birthday than to blow Sony Pictures’ plans for a Dark Tower spinoff series wide open? Much to the delight of King fans the world over, that’s exactly how Entertainment Weekly chose to celebrate the occasion, confirming that not only will Wizard and Glass – the fourth entry into King’s expansive saga – serve as the basis for Sony’s serialized offshoot, but also that Idris Elba and Tom Taylor have committed to appearing as Roland Deschain (The Gunslinger) and Jake, respectively.
Reigning in the scope to focus on the origins of Elba’s gun-toting character, EW notes that plans are in place for the show to premiere some time in 2018, though Sony is reportedly still vacillating between 10 or 13 episodes depending on how story arcs and such take shape.
[zergpaid]Casting details regarding the younger Roland weren’t disclosed at this time, while the jury’s still out on whether Matthew McConaughey will join Elba and Taylor for the series – his elusive, all-powerful character the Man in Black will almost certainly appear, however.
Beyond that, firm details remain few and far between. Behind the scenes, Nikolaj Arcel – the director behind 2017’s The Dark Tower – will contribute to Sony’s spinoff TV series along with his co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen. Another showrunner is expected to be drafted in to oversee day-to-day operations. Akiva Goldsman is among those on board to executive produce, and he recently teased the fractured mindset of one Roland Deschain, and how the series will ultimately build on the foundations laid by Arcel’s marquee adaptation.
“In the movie, Roland is suffering tremendous loss. The most concrete, personal, existential heartbreak a character can have,” Goldsman says. “If the movie chronicles his final reach toward hope again, the TV show is the loss of that hope.”
Set to enter production in 2017, we’ll be bringing you all the updates regarding Sony’s TV spinoff as they appear. The Dark Tower, meanwhile, hits screens on February 10, 2017.
