Despite the failure of 2017’s The Dark Tower movie, the need for a proper adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal book series has remained. There should be little doubt that during a period when there have been several high-profile Stephen King adaptations like IT, Gerald’s Game, and Doctor Sleep, The Dark Tower was a huge disappointment. Indeed, it accomplished the remarkable feat of attempting and failing to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, while also managing to squander a ready-made audience of those who loved the books.
This outright failure inevitably ended plans for follow-up movies and Dark Tower TV shows by seemingly confirming the idea that the challenges involved in successfully adapting The Dark Tower were insurmountable. However, while these challenges have remained, the popularity and potential of The Dark Tower books - which are undoubtedly among Stephen King’s biggest and best works - have also endured. As a result, the seven novels, one tie-in book, and one short story that comprised the series still deserve to be properly adapted.
Why 2017's The Dark Tower Failed As A Stephen King Adaptation
Perhaps the most obvious mistake that 2017’s The Dark Tower made was in trying to be too audience friendly. The Dark Tower books were deep and complex. Character motivations were multifaceted, and the story itself combined and redefined genres in ways that made sense uniquely within Stephen King’s story world. Added to this, the books functioned as the link between all of Stephen King’s books, which further complicated attempts at making an appealing first movie for a possible franchise.
Even so, deciding to make the movie into a sequel to the story told in the books and then condensing it into a 95-minute runtime were huge errors. By shrinking so much of the story, the movie had no time to breathe and felt almost comically underdeveloped given the source material. Perhaps the best example of this was in the characterization of Roland Deschain. In the books, Roland's sole focus was on reaching and protecting the Tower - but in the movie, his motivation was far more basic, as he was essentially seeking revenge on The Man in Black.
Perhaps more significantly, the movie's narrative actually shifted away from him. Instead, it became Jake Chambers' story with various elements from The Dark Tower books and other Stephen King stories like IT all thrown in together without any sense of why it was supposed to matter. Ultimately this resulted in a rushed, aimless, and bland movie that failed to engage audiences who were unfamiliar with the books while also annoying long-time fans who felt understandably short-changed.
Will There Be Another Dark Tower Movie Or Show?
In many ways, the overriding emotion about 2017’s The Dark Tower is disappointment at what might have been. After all, The Dark Tower movie had the chance to be an epic like Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, or even Star Wars, but it made barely any impression at all. Despite this, the story’s potential is still clearly there, and there does seem to be a big audience for epic fantasy movies and TV shows who are waiting for a brilliant adaptation of The Dark Tower to finally happen.
Naturally, many of the complications that placed The Dark Tower movie in development hell for years still exist. Given that The Dark Tower books tie in directly to other Stephen King stories like Salem’s Lot, and The Stand there are definite issues regarding the film rights to King’s books being owned by multiple studios and streaming services. Nevertheless, a new movie or TV show should not be ruled out especially given the continued vocal interest that The Dark Tower fan Mike Flanagan has shown in making it happen.
Ultimately, any new adaptation of The Dark Tower probably needs to be a ion project instead of being treated as a piece of content to be exploited. This is partially due to the complicated nature of the lore surrounding the series itself, and also because a remake will inherently be met with skepticism due to the previous movie's mixed reception. Stephen King's The Dark Tower series getting a movie reboot needs to be the result of someone caring so deeply for the world and its characters that they couldn't resist making it - as this is likely the only way King’s brilliant story can be saved, and can finally get the true adaptation it deserves.
