6 Scenes We’re Excited to See in Mike Flanagan’s Dark Tower Adaptation

While we’re still waiting for a studio to actually commit to Mike Flanagan’s epic 5 season, 2 movie Dark Tower adaptation, that hasn’t stopped rabid fans (like me) from getting really excited about the project. Given Flanagan’s excellent work on two other King adaptations in Dr. Sleep and Gerald’s Game, there’s no reason to believe he won’t succeed with the Dark Tower series as well.

With no actual Dark Tower to watch, recently I’ve been thinking about what scenes would translate the best to the small screen. While it was tough to narrow it down, here are the 6 I’m most excited about:

• The battle of Calla Bryn Sturgis
• Riddling with Blaine
• The Shootout at The Leaning Tower
• Roland earning his guns
• The battle of Algul Siento
• Reaching the Dark Tower

6. The battle of Calla Bryn Sturgis

The entirety of book 5, Wolves of the Calla, is basically a reimagining of The Magnificent Seven (which was in turn a remake of the Kurasawa film Seven Samurai). Only, instead of seven strangers, it’s the ka-tet of nineteen ninety-nine who have to get the town ready to defend itself. The book is a slow burn, and leads up to a quick, vicious fight against the mechanical “wolves” that come to take the children of Bryn Sturgis.

The ka-tet’s plan is clever, but relatively simple, and it mostly goes off without a hitch, except for the Tavery twin breaking his ankle and the deaths of both Margaret and Ben. The clever ambush, two tragic deaths, and the disappearance of Susannah/Mia immediately following the battle makes this a scene with action, strategy, and suspense, and one that we’d love to see — if only so we can properly visualize just how the ambush went down.

5. Riddling with Blaine the Mono

The ka-tet leaves the city of Lud via monorail, only the monorail is run by a sentient — and completely insane — AI with a deathwish. It makes a deal with them: stump the AI, and they can live. Fail, and Blaine will crash at the end of the line, at speeds way too fast to survive.

While this is a scene that works perfectly fine without a visual element, it’s one of the best moments in the book, not only because of the rising tension as they fail to stump Blaine, but because it serves as a great Eddie moment — his silliness is finally vindicated in Roland’s eyes, and it’s a turning point for their relationship. Blaine is both terrifying and pretty darn funny, and actually getting to hear him joke with and threaten the ka-tet in his Humphrey Bogart and John Wayne voices should be a lot of fun. Plus, we might get to see a really epic crash at the end.

4. The shootout at the Leaning Tower

Eddie is taken to the mobster Balazar, who is holding Eddie’s brother hostage. Eddie brings Roland into his world, and a shootout with Balazar and his men ensues.

There are going to be a number of action sequences on this list, for obvious reasons. This one is notable mostly because Eddie has to fight naked, and seeing the way the actor who plays Eddie handles it should be interesting, assuming they do a good job. Eddie’s never been in a firefight before, but he shows his gunslinger steel in Balazar’s office, even sans clothing. The scene also starts with an almost comical fight sequence in Roland’s world, when Jack Andolini gets dragged through the portal by Eddie and almost kills Roland.

3. Roland earning his guns

Randall Flagg baits Roland into an early test of his manhood, in which a would-be gunslinger must defeat his teacher and earn his guns. Roland chooses the hawk David as his weapon, and defeats Cort, albeit narrowly.

There are a number of great moments, both in this scene and in the lead up to it. Roland seeing his mother with Flagg, him going to David the hawk, and the actual fight itself would all play great on screen. The battle between Cort is a brutal one, as once Roland sends David to strike, he’s got no weapon at all. While PETA probably won’t enjoy it, it’s an epic fight scene, and if handled properly, could end up as famous (or infamous) as the brutal fight scene in They Live.

2. The Battle of Algul Siento

The ka-tet assaults the Breaker campus of Algul Siento, stopping their work against the Beams and freeing many of the Breakers.

There are a lot of excellent battle scenes in the Dark Tower series, but this one is my favorite. The set up is great, with the ka-tet laying their plans out; there’s also the tense scene with Haylis of Chayven planting the sneetches around the campus and almost getting caught. Roland, Eddie, Jake and Susannah attacking from all sides to create the illusion of many attackers is believable, and seeing the gunslingers work their deadly art on the small screen would be awesome. The way the ka-tet’s plan works so perfectly — and then Eddie is killed once they’ve essentially won the day — is a roller coaster of emotions that feels so good and then hurts so bad every time I read it.

1. Reaching the Dark Tower

Roland finally reaches the Dark Tower in Can’-Ka No Rey, and climbs to its top.

It’s the climax of the series, and a poignant scene. Roland calling out the names of the companions he gained and lost on his long journey as he approaches the tower, his climb to the top — these scenes would play great in the visual medium, as would Can’-Ka No Rey (the Red Field of None), the roses that surround the tower. The tower is also never described in great detail, so it would be nice to see how the artist(s) on the adaptation project decide to approach the all-important tower.

And there you have it — the scenes I’m most excited to see when we finally get Mike Flanagan’s Dark Tower adaptation. Is one of your favorite scenes missing from the list? Let us know in the comments!