Summary

• Mike Flanagan's The Dark Tower series must honor pivotal moments from Stephen King's novels for a faithful adaptation.
• A television format is more suitable for the epic scope of The Dark Tower, offering room for essential story elements.
• Incorporating key events like the Battle of Tull and Roland sacrificing Jake is crucial for character development in the adaptation.

WARNING: This article contains spoilers from Stephen King's Dark Tower novels.

In order for Mike Flanagan's The Dark Tower books tell a sprawling epic that connects to many of King's other works, including The Stand and Salem's Lot. The story's enormous scope that spans numerous universes makes an onscreen adaptation a tantalizing, yet daunting venture.

A film adaptation starring Idris Elba as Roland Deschain was released in 2017, but it was poorly received, and did not do justice to the books. A television series format is better suited to the narrative challenges that The Dark Tower books present, and Mike Flanagan is familiar with adapting King's work, having directed adaptations of Gerald's Game and Doctor Sleep. While there will inevitably be differences between the books and the television series, the adaptation will not feel complete unless it incorporates some of the novel's most important moments.

10 The Battle Of Tull

The Massacre Is Essential To Establishing Roland's Character

When adapting The Gunslinger for season 1 of The Dark Tower series, the Battle of Tull will be one of the most important sequences to include. Roland goes to the town of Tull on his quest to find the man in black and the Dark Tower. While Roland is there, the townspeople turn on him and try to kill him, and he retaliates by shooting and killing every single person living in Tull, a massacre that he justifies as necessary to defend himself and continue his quest.

Even though Roland is The Dark Tower's protagonist, the Battle of Tull helps establish that he is not a hero and can be ruthless when he feels he needs to be. This event was already adapted as a five-issue limited comic book series that has visually brought it to life, but it would be on an entirely different scale in a television series. It would be chilling to watch while also being integral to developing Roland over the course of numerous seasons.

9 Roland Sacrifices Jake

"Go Then, There Are Other Worlds Than These."

While the Battle of Tull is shocking, it arguably pales in comparison with Roland sacrificing Jake Chambers. After the events in Tull, Roland meets Jake and the two spend much of The Gunslinger traveling together and helping each other, with Roland even becoming somewhat of a mentor to him. Despite this, Roland ultimately sacrifices Jake's life, letting the young boy die in exchange for information from the man in black about the Dark Tower and his future.

Jake's chilling final words, "Go then, there are other worlds than these" set up the rest of the series and how it spans numerous worlds across time and space. Roland's cruel decision further emphasizes the lengths he is willing to go to reach the Dark Tower and that he is not the hero in this story. Sacrificing Jake is a decision that haunts him, though, and becomes even more important when Jake returns to the story in a significant way later in the series.

8 The Battle of Jericho Hill

The Gunslingers' Final Stand

In The Dark Tower series, there are references and flashbacks to the Battle of Jericho Hill, which is where the gunslingers made their final stand. It is a vital piece of lore as it marks the end of the gunslingers, but is just as important for Roland given how the deaths of his friends and his actions during the battle still haunt him years later. Equally important is the Horn of Arthur Eld falling and not being picked up during the battle, which ties into the series' endgame.

Like The Battle of Tull, the Battle of Jericho Hill was adapted into a five-issue limited comic book series. It is a visually rich and tragic event that needs to be showcased in the television series for world-building and character development. The Battle of Jericho Hill was a major turning point in Roland's life that leaves him as the last of the gunslingers and fills him with regret, defining much of his character and some of the choices he will later make.

7 Roland And Eddie Meeting

A Plane, Smuggling Drugs, And The Beginning Of The Ka-Tet

The second novel, The Drawing of the Three, sees The Dark Tower's main cast expanding, including the addition of Eddie Dean. Roland and Eddie meeting for the first time is a memorable sequence in which Roland finds himself on an airplane, something he has never experienced in his world, while Eddie is attempting to smuggle drugs. It is a strange, but memorable way for the two central characters to meet, with Roland as a fish out of water, and Eddie unaware of how his life and understanding of the universe are able to change forever.

After seeing Roland as the lone gunslinger in his world that feels like it belongs in a Wild West story, it is a refreshing change of pace to see him thrust into a more modern world, even if he is only there temporarily. The relationship that he and Eddie form is foundational to the rest of the series and leads to bringing together the group that will also include Susannah Dean, Jake Chambers, and Oy, which becomes known as Roland's ka-tet. Before this, Roland and Eddie's humorous and tense meeting needs to be done right.

6 Blaine The Mono’s Riddle Contest

"When Is A Door Not A Door?"

One of the most bizarre and unforgettable elements of The Dark Tower series is Blaine the Mono, a sentient and unhinged monorail train. When Blaine plans to intentionally derail himself while Roland and his ka-tet are on board, a riddle contest begins, with the ka-tet needing to win to ensure their survival. It is a game of riddles with the highest of stakes, in some ways a far darker version of Bilbo Baggins and Gollum's game of riddles in The Hobbit.

This riddle contest begins at the end of the third book, The Waste Lands, and concludes at the beginning of the fourth book, Wizard and Glass. If the television series follows this format, it could be a great cliffhanger to end a season on, with the ka-tet's unconventional victory being an equally effective way to begin the next season. Blaine is a truly unique antagonist and should be adapted with all the weirdness and absurdity that comes with him.

5 The Man In Black's Numerous Identities

This Reveal Goes Beyond The Dark Tower Books

While he is initially known as the man in black, The Dark Tower villain is eventually revealed to have many identities throughout the series, including Walter Padick, Randall Flagg, and Marten Broadclock. He is not only a prominent antagonist in The Dark Tower, but in many other King stories as well, with Flagg being the main villain in The Stand and Eyes of the Dragon. In The Dark Tower, it is a revelatory moment when Roland realizes that all those various figures in his life have been the man in black.

Matthew McConaughey played the man in black in the 2017 Dark Tower film, while Alexander Skarsgård played Randall Flagg in the 2020 miniseries adaptation of The Stand.

In a television series, it may be difficult to pull off this same twist, especially if the same actor plays all the different versions of the man in black. Even if it is obvious to the audience, this moment still needs to happen as it is important for Roland's character arc and demonstrates the man in black's sinister influence across various chapters in the gunslinger's life. Even with the same actor playing all these versions of the character, it can still be a powerful revelation.

4 Eddie’s Death

The Beginning Of The End For The Ka-Tet

As a main character since The Drawing of the Three, Eddie's death in the final Dark Tower book is of great importance. It is after Eddie's death that the ka-tet begins to break, as Eddie was in many ways the glue that held them together. How the respective character arcs of Roland, Susannah, and Jake culminate is significantly shaped by Eddie's death, his final words, and what he meant to everyone in the ka-tet over the course of the series.

The circumstances surrounding Eddie's death also matter as it happens when the ka-tet free the Breakers from being forced to work for the Crimson King at Algul Siento. The Breakers are telepaths whose powers are being used to try and break the Beams ing the Dark Tower, with one of the Breakers being Ted Brautigan from King's Hearts in Atlantis. Freeing the Breakers is important in Roland's quest to finally reach the Dark Tower.

3 The Ka-Tet Have To Save Stephen King

Saving The Author's Life Is A Pivotal Plot Point

King is not only the author of The Dark Tower series, but becomes an actual character in the story, with the ka-tet needing to save him from being hit by a van. This is influenced by real-life events, as King was actually hit by a van in 1999 when he was walking along the side of the road. Saving King becomes critical to the ka-tet's quest for the Dark Tower, and even leads to Jake sacrificing his life to save King, so the author can write the rest of their story.

The Dark Tower series features many bold and surprising narrative choices, but this fourth wall-breaking moment is in a class of its own. It could be made even more effective in the television series if King makes a cameo as himself to bring this important storyline to life. While there have been many Stephen King adaptations over the years, this would be the first to partly revolve around the author's life needing to be saved as part of the story.

2 Susannah Stops Searching For The Dark Tower With Roland

After the deaths of Eddie and Jake, only Susannah and the billy-bumbler Oy remain as part of Roland's ka-tet. Unlike the others, Susannah does not die, but instead decides to stop continuing to search for the Dark Tower with Roland. She realizes that Roland needs to finish the quest without her and travels through a door to another world, where she is reunited with Eddie and Jake, albeit different versions from those she knew.

Susannah is just as integral to The Dark Tower as Roland, Jake, and Eddie are throughout the series. Her story does not end with a heroic death, but it is a fitting culmination of her complicated journey, an ending that brings a certain sense of peace and acceptance. It is also important that Roland ultimately reaches the Dark Tower alone and without the ka-tet, and if Susannah was there with him, the series' ending would be fundamentally different.

1 Roland Finally Reaches The Dark Tower (And The Journey Begins Again)

It Is An Appropriately Haunting Ending

The television adaptation needs to end the same way the book series does, with Roland finally reaching it, and discovering The Dark Tower's horrifying twist once he steps inside. That twist, of course, is that Roland has made it to the Dark Tower numerous times before, and he is stuck in a cycle of searching for it over and over again. This unsettling, but fitting ending is the only way to end the series, and has the potential to be even more unsettling in the adaptation.

The Dark Tower ends with the same final line as The Gunslinger: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed."

Ending The Dark Tower any other way changes the essence of the entire series. For those unfamiliar with how the source material ends, this conclusion will likely be divisive and disappointing for some, but is still the ending that Flanagan's adaptation needs to feature. If the journey of The Dark Tower is done right, the destination needs to be done properly as well after multiple seasons adapting the various books in the series.