Fran Kranz Cast in The Dark Tower Movie

Fran Kranz, best known to genre fans as Topher on Joss Whedon's Dollhouse (also appearing in Whedon's Cabin in the Woods and Much Ado About Nothing), has been cast in The Dark Tower. The actor will play Pimli Prentiss, a character who wasn't introduced until book 7 of the series.

In the book, Pimli worked directly for the Crimson King (think the guy behind the guy behind the guy, the real big bad of the story), as a prison warden of sorts. He felt somewhat troubled working for the King, though.

According to THR, his character in the film will be "the right hand man of the Man in Black," a drastic change from the novels. Of course, if they are in fact adapting all seven books as one film, they would need some fairly drastic changes. Two of the other characters announced for the film so far also come from the latter half of the book series.

The film, from Sony Pictures, is based on the Stephen King series that serves as a creative spine for nearly all of his fiction. Through the hub of parallel worlds known as the Dark Tower, books like It, The Stand, Salem's Lot, Dreamcatcher, and many, many more crossover directly with the seven book series (an eighth book covering more of the past and several comic book series that are in-canon with it all were also published). Stephen King himself becomes a character in the story for a time, as do characters and elements from some of his favorite fiction like Marvel Comics and Harry Potter.

Idris Elba stars as Roland Deschain, the last Gunslinger, as he chases the Man in Black, played by Matthew McConaughey.

The Dark Tower started principal photography earlier this month with director Nikolaj Arcei for a January 13, 2017 release.