Update: Apparently, Stephen King is not writing anything for Mike Flanagan’s Dark Tower series. “Contrary to the Internet (which usually is never wrong), I am NOT writing for Mike Flanagan’s DARK TOWER,” the author posted on Bluesky this afternoon. To this, Flanagan responded, “However, it’s no exaggeration to say that you provided the ultimate blueprint for success (in fact, it’s the understatement of the century). Thankee, sai.” Seems like King may have “stir[red] up a bunch of stuff” even when he wasn’t trying to.
Original story: In a 2022 interview with IGN, horror auteur and major Stephen King-appreciator Mike Flanagan called The Dark Tower his “Everest.” “Nothing would make me happier” than a chance to direct an adaptation of King’s magnum opus, the Haunting Of Hill House creator said at the time. Less than two months later, the series was officially a go at Amazon. But if Flanagan-of-two-years-ago thought he achieved his dream when the series was greenlit, imagine how he must have felt upon hearing today’s news for the first time: Stephen King—yes, the Stephen King—is writing something for the series.
“All I can say is it’s happening,” King told IGN of his mysterious contribution. “I am writing stuff now and I think that’s all I want to say because the next thing you know, I’ll stir up a bunch of stuff I don’t necessarily want to stir up yet. I’m in process right now, and to say too much feels like a jinx.” King has written more than 60 books in addition to 200-odd short stories, so as much as we’d like to know exactly what he’s cooking up, we won’t question the man’s writing process.
After all, it did give us the Dark Tower series, a sprawling epic told in seven installments (and two supporting novels) published over the span of 22 years. We won’t attempt to summarize everything it’s got going on here—that’s Flanagan’s mountain to climb—but the basic plot follows a lone gunslinger as he traverses a desolate landscape in search of the mysterious and elusive dark tower.
Flanagan isn’t the first filmmaker to attempt to summit the story’s peaks. Nikolaj Arcel turned the epic series into a “dud” movie starring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey in 2017, and Glen Mazzara took a crack at it a few years later in a pilot for Amazon that never made it to air. Flanagan is far more equipped than his predecessors, though. He’s already shown his mettle with films like Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep, and The Life Of Chuck, which won the audience award at last year’s TIFF and is due to hit theaters this May. He’s also working on a Carrie series for Amazon in addition to The Dark Tower.
Besides, Flanagan intimately understands what makes The Dark Tower so special, which is that it’s “perfect.” As he said in that 2022 IGN interview, “It’s a story about a tiny group of people, all the odds in the whole world are against them, and they come together. As long as it’s that, it’ll be fine and there won’t be a dry eye in the house.” Especially with Stephen King by his side, he may actually pull this off.
![[Updated] Stephen King says he's not writing for Mike Flanagan's The Dark Tower](https://img.pastemagazine.com/wp-content/avuploads/2025/02/24161520/MixCollage-24-Feb-2025-04-13-PM-4174.jpg)