8 Alternative Endings To Stephen King Novels That Were Originally Planned
4. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - Walter's Death
King's magnum opus, the Dark Tower series, started life as a series of five short stories which King eventually revised and rewrote into what would become the first novel of the series - The Gunslinger. Originally published in 1982, King produced a revised version in 2003 in order to bring the book into better continuity with the rest of the series, adding some 35 pages.
The change in ending is mostly subtle. In both versions, the gunslinger Roland Deschain awakens after a decade-long slumber induced by his nemesis Walter (a.k.a. the Man in Black) to find what appear to be his skeletal remains. In the original edition, Roland is certain of Walter's demise, but in the revised edition he speculates that the skeleton may just be a trick by the Man in Black and he's still out there.
Furthermore, the original text indicates that the characters of Walter and Roland's former teacher-turned-enemy Marten Broadcloak were two separate and distinct characters. When this was retconned later in the series, King revised the text to match. He also added foreshadowed Walter/Roland's third identity - Randall Flagg, something that was also revealed later in the series.