‘Dark Tower’ TV Series Gains ‘The Walking Dead’ Showrunner

Hitting theaters this weekend is The Dark Tower, the live-action introduction to Stephen King’s epic series of novels, which was set to launch a planned TV series. With the film already earning a plethora of poor reviews (you can read ours here), many critics would think the TV series would be in jeopardy, but The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that former The Walking Dead showrunner Glen Mazzara will helm the eventual series.

“I’ve been a Stephen King fan for decades, and the opportunity to adapt The Dark Tower as a TV series is a great honor,” Mazzara explained to the outlet. “The events of The Gunslinger, Wizard and Glass, The Wind Through the Keyhole and other tales need a long format to capture the complexity of Roland’s coming of age — how he became the Gunslinger, how Walter became the Man in Black, and how their rivalry cost Roland everything and everyone he ever loved. I could not be more excited to tell this story. It feels like being given the key to a treasure chest. And oh yeah, we’ll have billy-bumblers!”

Although the TV series doesn’t yet have a home, sources explained that the project will have a short order of 10-13 episodes, with production aiming to begin in 2018.

Of the varied amount of criticisms of The Dark Tower, many took issue with the vast amount of mythology the film attempted to incorporate but failed to do, requiring long stretches of exposition. Devoted fans have long felt that a serialized story, much like The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones, would be a much more appropriate format to convey the complex themes. If sources are correct about the 10-13 episode length, this could result in the project heading to HBO or Netflix, with both sources having large enough budgets to do the story justice.

Earlier this year, producer Akiva Goldsman confirmed to Deadline that the series would explore the origins of the Gunslinger, Roland Deschain, played by Idris Elba in the film.

“The first episode of a show has been written, and we hope to retain Ron Howard’s original idea to mix platforms, something that seemed revolutionary 10 years ago but now is something that others have done,” Goldsman explained. “Idris for sure is part of this, and if the movie is Roland Deschain the gunslinger, the show is his origin story, based on the fourth novel in the series, Wizard and Glass.”

Regardless of what the financial returns are on the film, it sounds like the plans for the mythology extends far past the first installment.

The Dark Tower opens Friday.