Dark Tower TV Series: 9 Things It Must Do To Save The Franchise

The Dark Tower movie was built on shaky foundations, but in spite of its much-publicised production woes, directorial departures and extended stay in development hell, it should have turned out better than it did.

There was no shortage of inspired source material for the film to draw on, the cast and director's talents were never up for debate and its $60 million budget, while relatively small by blockbuster standards, wasn't exactly chump change.

Dark Tower was lambasted by fans and critics, many of whom felt it lacked the vision, scope and runtime required to capture the essence of Stephen King's magnum opus.

Sony's vision for the franchise was originally an ambitious one, spanning multiple films and companion TV series, but the movie's reception may have scaled that back.

Scaled it back, but not killed it entirely as the studio's plans for a prequel series exploring Roland Deschain’s gun-slinging origin aren't yet off the table, with Walking Dead alum Glen Mazzara attached as showrunner and lead actor Idris Elba (by far the best thing about the film) willing to return.

Reports suggest the show will be based on the fourth book in the series, Wizard and Glass, with flashback sequences from The Gunslinger adding connective tissue.

Although The Dark Tower's future is clouded by uncertainty, one thing is for sure, any more slip-ups from Sony and the Ka-Tet will be broken forever.

Although The Dark Tower wasn't a direct adaptation of any of Stephen King's novels, playing out as a weird sequel-reboot hybrid, it could have at least respected them.

Much of the saga's lore was stripped away on the big screen, the high metaphysics, horror elements and moral ambiguity the author weaved into the story making way for a watered-down depiction of good versus evil.

The Dark Tower TV show should stick to the books more closely, delving deeper into their lore and mythology. Pick out the best scenes and adapt them, rather than create new ones that aren't as compelling as the source material.

A straight adaptation of Wizard and Glass - which tells the story of how a young Roland earned his guns and found love only for it to end in tragedy - would work in the context of the movie and add depth to Idris Elba's character, something he was denied by the film's wafer-thin screenplay and capped runtime.

Presumably Elba would serve as the story's narrator, telling his backstory to Tom Taylor's Jake Chambers before taking centre stage when their adventure continues, either in a future movie or another season of the TV show.

No doubt Dark Tower director Nikolaj Arcel went down the quasi-sequel road because he didn't have enough runtime at his disposal to adapt the books page for page. This isn't a problem the TV show will have, and it should take full advantage of that.