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

9. Be More Faithful To The Books

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.