One of the wildest scenes in Stephen King's Matthew McConaughey's first major villain role, it will also introduce some problems.

Staying true to King's source material will let Mike Flanagan's The Dark Tower adapt some incredible moments from the books. It also means that Flangan's Dark Tower can include some forgotten characters and get into more of King's sprawling story. However, it also means that the show has to include some less adaptation-friendly material. The Dark Tower regularly includes mind-bending psychic visions, reality-warping physics, and high-level fantasy elements that could reasonably be written around. One of the hardest scenes to adapt to television, however, will also be crucial to both Roland and Eddie Dean, and it simply can't be avoided.

Eddie Dean’s Introduction In The Drawing Of The Three Saw Him Fight A Room Full Of Gangsters While Naked

In The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, Roland meets two of the most important of his ka-tet: Eddie and Susannah Dean. Eddie's introduction is going to be particularly hard for Mike Flanagan's Dark Tower to pull off. It involves drug smuggling, heroin abuse, portals between worlds and minds, and a naked gunfight with a group of gangsters. The Drawing of the Three sees Roland come upon three doors, the first of which brings him into the mind of Eddie. At the time, Eddie was trying to smuggle cocaine into the country for the gangster Emilio Balazar, and that task ended up in a gunfight.

A gunfight with gangsters isn't special in its own right, but Eddie was completely naked for the entire ordeal. To get the cocaine past customs, Eddie had put the drugs through the portal into Mid-World. When he showed up at Balazar's place without any drugs, the gangster was reasonably suspicious, and made Eddie submit to a strip-search. After a few more developments, like Eddie learning that his brother, Henry, had died from a heroin overdose, Eddie and Roland killed Balazar and all his men while Eddie was still naked. It's an intense and important part of The Dark Tower, and one that won't easily translate to television.

Eddie’s Naked Gunfight Is The Foundation Of His Friendship With Roland Deschain In The Dark Tower

Roland Gained Respect For Eddie Because He Fought Naked, & The Two Became Close Friends

While the gunfight at Balazar's bar mostly focused on Eddie, it also had a very important effect on Roland. Simply put, Roland wasn't very impressed when he first met Eddie. He thought Eddie was weak, both because of his heroin addiction and because of his soft spot for Henry, but he knew Eddie had strength in him. It was during the shootout that Roland actually got to see Eddie's strength, and it was because Eddie had fought naked that Roland grew to respect him.

"Eddie was doing well. The gunslinger measured just how well by the fact that he was fighting naked. That was hard for a man. Sometimes impossible."

The strength and courage Eddie displayed by fighting Balazar and his men while naked ended up being the foundation of his friendship with Roland. Shortly after the gunfight, both Eddie and Roland nearly die from heroin withdrawal and a normal infection, respectively. If Roland hadn't helped Eddie, and if Eddie hadn't proven his strength, the two wouldn't have been able to lean on each other enough to survive, and their friendship would never have gotten started. It was also the reason Roland ultimately decided to train Eddie as a gunslinger, which becomes a major part of the ka-tet's dynamic later in the series.

Mike Flanagan’s Dark Tower Series Must Find A Way To Show How Impressed Roland Is With Eddie’s Gunfight

So Many Parts Of Eddie's Gunfight Seemingly Only Work In A Literary Format

It's imperative that Mike Flanagan's take on The Dark Tower gets Eddie's naked gunfight right, but that's much easier said than done. Aside from the logistics of such a scene - like showing an actor fighting completely naked and switching between Mid-World and New York - it's going to be tough to convey everything the fight needs to establish. As a TV show, Mike Flanagan won't have the benefit of an internal monologue like Stephen King's novel had. As such, it won't be able to simply say that Roland was impressed, and Roland simply speaking such a thought wouldn't give it enough weight.

Eddie's gunfight is a crucial piece of setup for the rest of the story. It was the first time Roland learned that he could truly trust and rely on other people to help him reach the Tower, which made trusting Susannah and Jake easier for him. Roland's first encounter with Eddie also introduced the idea of switching between Mid-World and New York, a concept that would be explored in extreme detail later in the series. If Mike Flanagan's The Dark Tower is going to adapt all seven (and a half) of Stephen King's books, it has to figure out how to put Eddie's naked gunfight on screen.