The Dark Tower Film Confirmed to Be A Sequel to Stephen King's Book Series

It's already been already revealed that The Dark Tower is not a direct adaptation of any of the books in Stephen King's series. As we've seen in the trailers, readers would notice various elements from different books, and fans have been speculating that it's just going to be a condensed retelling of the whole series. It turns out that the story of the film trilogy and TV series will actually take place after the events of the book series. The films will be a sequel to the book series.

While speaking with IGN, director Nik Arcel confirmed that this is their plan:

"It is, in fact, a continuation. It is a canon continuation. That's exactly what we intended and what Stephen King has signed off on."

Fans of King's series probably got a hint that this is what they're planning to do with the film when King tweeted an image of Horn of Eld last year.

If you're not familiar with The Dark Tower books, here's what happens: at the end of the final book, right after Roland reaches the tower, he realizes that he's done this all before. He realizes that he's done this journey a lot of times before, but everytime he's goes through this journey, it has been a different experience for him.

When things rest at the end of the final book, Roland learns that he's at the start of his journey in the first book, but there's something different this time. This time, he has the Horn of Eld. When he realizes what he has, Gan's voice tells him, "This is your promise that things may be different, Roland – that there may yet be rest. Even salvation."

The image King shared had a caption: "Last Time Around", which could mean that the film series will be Roland's final journey. This might be the last time that things won't reset for Idris Elba's character.

Synopsis:

The Dark Tower series tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World's last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World's post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower. Located in the fey region of End-World, amid a sea of singing red roses, the Dark Tower is the nexus point of the time-space continuum. It is the heart of all worlds, but it is also under threat. Someone, or something, is using the evil technology of the Great Old Ones to destroy it.

Directed by Nikolaj Arcel, the film also stars Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers, Abbey Lee (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Tirana; Fran Kranz (The Cabin in the Woods) as Pimli, the right hand man of Randall Flagg; Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen); Katheryn Winnick (Vikings) and Claudia Kiim (Avengers: Age of Ultron).

The Dark Tower will open in theaters on August 4, 2017.

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