Leads Cast in Amazon’s Dark Tower Adaptation
A new actor will remember the face of his father. Deadline reports that Sam Strike (the coolest name ever) has been cast as the iconic gunslinger Roland Deschain in Amazon’s new series adaptation of Stephen King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower. In addition, Jasper Pääkkönen has been cast to play the Man in Black, aka The Stand’s Randall Flagg. This is a project that has been flying under my radar for a while. When Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey were cast as Deschain and the Man in Black, respectively, in the film adaptation, I was very excited, particularly for the former, as I had been hoping for Elba to headline a film of his own. There were even plans for the Suicide Squad performer and several other actors to transition to what would have hopefully been a prestige television series and then circle back to the films.
When the Dark Tower film underperformed, that threw a wrench into their plans, although King still maintained that a TV series was possible, albeit in a rebooted form. So when Amazon announced they were still going to do The Dark Tower, it barely registered with me, as it sounded as though they were moving away from Elba as the lead. Yes, it might be easy to say that would be like throwing good money after bad, but I still maintain that Elba was not the problem with the movie and he deserved a chance to bring his iteration of the character to its full potential. Although I’m disappointed this won’t be the case, I’m optimistic about the series. There is so much potential in bringing Mid-World to television in the age of streaming. I even think there could be a chance that they’ll explore how King was essentially doing a Marvel-style universe before it was popular. In any case, for the first time in years, the future of the Dark Tower franchise seems bright, and I can’t wait to watch Deschain go ’round the bend again.
Are you excited by this casting news? Let us know in the comments!
