Summary

• Mike Flanagan, known for his success in adapting Stephen King stories, holds the rights to bring The Dark Tower series to the screen.
• Flanagan's 2017 movie Gerald's Game subtly linked to The Dark Tower through a line of dialogue, creating a potential connection within his Dark Tower adaptation.
• Flanagan's previous adaptations and attention to detail make him a trusted filmmaker to accurately capture King's themes and interconnect his literary world on screen.

Flanagan is widely known for his Netflix TV shows like The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher, two of his biggest horror movies have been Stephen King adaptations: Gerald’s Game (2017) and Doctor Sleep (2019).

Following his fruitful partnership with Netflix, Flanagan already has his sights set on bringing more Stephen King tales to the screen. In addition to Flanagan’s movie The Life of Chuck, based on the 2020 King novella, he’s also optimistic about turning the author’s Dark Tower novels into a TV show. While Flanagan’s Dark Tower adaptation has yet to be greenlit by a studio, the fact that he holds the story’s screen rights, has previously adapted King stories with significant acclaim, and is confident about it happening alleviates doubts about being able to fully bring to life the classic King saga. With Flanagan behind the adaptation, it’s also interesting that his first Stephen King movie subtly referenced The Dark Tower’s story.

Mike Flanagan's Gerald's Game Movie Includes A Haunting Reference To The Dark Tower

Several years before the filmmaker acquired the rights to adapt The Dark Tower in 2022, Flanagan included a clever nod to the tale in his 2017 Netflix movie Gerald’s Game. Widely considered an unfilmable story until Flanagan proved otherwise, Stephen King’s novel Gerald’s Game follows a woman named Jessie Burlingame, who is left handcuffed to her bed in an isolated house after her husband suddenly dies of a heart attack. The movie and novel explore Jessie grappling with her inner demons and psychological battles, all the while trying to survive her seemingly doomed situation. Though Gerald’s Game’s movie featured several Easter eggs and references to Mike Flanagan’s other works, it also linked back to other Stephen King tales.

While Gerald’s Game’s book is connected to King’s stories Dolores Claiborne, Bag of Bones, and Lisey’s Story, the novel didn’t contain any direct links to The Dark Tower series. However, Flanagan added a line to the movie that more directly connected the two narratives, namely the phrase, “All things serve the Beam.” When Jessie hallucinates a dead Gerald in the movie, the character speaks this directly to her, which arrives when he taunts her about death inevitably coming. This line is highly recognizable to those familiar with The Dark Tower books, as the phrase is frequently said throughout the series in reference to the six “Beams” upholding the Dark Tower.

Flanagan presumably only intended to include The Dark Tower phrase as an Easter egg for Stephen King fans, but the notion that he’s now looking to adapt said novels gives the line’s inclusion another meaning. Similar to how The Dark Tower novels create a subtle throughline for nearly the entire Stephen King book universe, this line could actually provide a basis for making Flanagan’s Gerald’s Game movie canon within his Dark Tower adaptation. It’s unknown how the two stories would further overlap other than more loose, indirect links, but it does mean that Flanagan’s Dark Tower universe could technically begin with the 2017 Stephen King movie.

Mike Flanagan's Dark Tower Teases Could Set Up His Own Stephen King Cinematic Universe

With Gerald’s Game’s subtle reference already laying the groundwork for a potential Flanagan/King cinematic universe after The Dark Tower, another Flanagan adaptation would also fit into this possibility. While The Dark Tower indirectly links to many King stories, the novel series contains a more direct reference to one of the author’s most famous works of his entire career. The Dark Tower references Danny Torrance, who is at the center of both The Shining and its sequel novel Doctor Sleep, the latter of which Mike Flanagan adapted into a film in 2019.

Additionally, Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep movie features a poster of comedian Joe Collins, who is a character in The Dark Tower series. Similar to the Gerald’s Game reference to Dark Tower, this nod likely wasn’t meant to be an establishing point for a connected film universe, but can retroactively be considered one should Flanagan choose to double-down on these links in his series. After so much success with his “Flanaverse” on Netflix, establishing his own connected universe through screen adaptations of King novels would be an exciting way to usher in the next phase in Flanagan’s career.

Flanagan is one of the filmmakers most trusted with King’s work, and there are plenty more Welcome to Derry show, Flanagan would also be a great choice to helm Dark Tower-related stories such as The Stand, ‘Salem’s Lot, and Black House.

Gerald's Game Helps Prove Why Mike Flanagan's Dark Tower Adaptation Will Work

Before Mike Flanagan filmed Gerald’s Game, faithfully adapted its story, and received outstanding reviews, the 1992 Stephen King novel was considered to be unadaptable. In addition to Stephen King’s book Insomnia, which ties into the saga, The Dark Tower is similarly considered to be an impossible-to-adapt King story. Given Flanagan’s seemingly impossible feat with Gerald’s Game, there’s high hope that the same will be accomplished with his version of The Dark Tower.

Often described as King’s magnus opum, The Dark Tower requires an incredible attention to detail, care, ion, craftsmanship, and understanding of King’s themes in order to work. If any recent filmmaker has proven their ability to translate these qualities to the screen, it's Flanagan. Furthermore, Flanagan is dedicated to the enormity and length required of adapting The Dark Tower, having already mapped out that the show would need at least five seasons with two accompanying standalone movies. With subtle references to The Dark Tower already having been dropped all the way back in 2017’s Gerald’s Game adaptation, there’s no doubt that Mike Flanagan will be able to brilliantly interconnect King's literary world on the screen.