6 Things a Potential New Dark Tower Book Could Be About

We were already having a hard time being patient with Mike Flanagan and his upcoming Dark Tower TV adaptation, and now Stephen King goes and gets us all excited. While all the tweet is, technically, is a simple statement of fact, it’s still rife with meaning:

It seems obvious King is suggesting that there are still tales of the tower to tell. And rather than being reasonable and saying to ourselves, “That’s nice, maybe he’ll write another Dark Tower book someday” and moving on, we are immediately going to start speculating about what he could write about.

So what are some of the narrative possibilities if Stephen King takes us on another journey in Mid-world? Below are a few ideas we think would work, things that seem likely, and things we’d simply enjoy.

WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for the entire Dark Tower book series.

Roland (or someone else) could tell another story

This is far and away the simplest approach, and seems somewhat likely — given that it’s something King has already done twice. Not only is book 4, Wizard and Glass, almost exclusively a story Roland tells the ka-tet, but the most recent Dark Tower story, The Wind Through the Keyhole, is also a story Roland tells the ka-tet (or rather, a story and a story within a story). So King doing it a third time certainly doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility, and might even be an obvious way for him to add to the Dark Tower series once more without disrupting the main narrative.

Having another character tell a story would also work, and it would be fun to hear a story from Eddie in particular — his voice seems well suited to a comic adventure — but really it could be any of the ka-tet that tells a story. A character in Calla Bryn Sturgis would also work, as the ka-tet spends quite a bit of time there in which a story could have been told.

The Man in Black

One of the most important antagonists, and a fascinating character in his own right, the Man in Black has lived even longer than Roland, and across more worlds. Once again, this is something King has already done in a way: the Man in Black has appeared as a character, important or minor, in a number of books. But we still haven’t gotten a book from the Man in Black’s perspective, entirely focused on him — and what a perspective it would be. As an agent of chaos with his own agenda, learning more about the events before, during, and after Flagg’s flight from Roland would be fascinating.

Steven Deschain

Roland’s father looms large in the gunslinger’s memory, and given that he led Gilead before its fall, it’s obvious he was a fearsome gunslinger in his own right. Before Roland’s test of manhood at 13, Steven was the youngest to pass the test, and there’s no doubt his own test would make for an equally exciting action sequence. Steven’s adventures with his ka-tet, the Tet of the Gun, could be anything, since so little of his life has been revealed thus far. Learning more about what Gilead was like before John Farson’s revolution would also be really cool.

The fall of Lud

Lud is full of tantalizing tidbits of history, from the advanced machinery beneath the city to the AI trains that were based there. While the city in its prime could also be an interesting setting for a story, the city’s fall seems like the most obvious story to tell. Patricia the mono’s suicide, David Quick in his biplane, the start of the war between the Pubes and the Greys — there’s a lot to cover, and quite a bit that ought to make for compelling reading.

A Manni traveler

The Manni folk are adept travelers between the worlds, as demonstrated in Song of Susannah. Given how entertaining the world-hopping bits of the Dark Tower series were, a story involving a Manni who travels between worlds would be a cool way to expand the broader universe — and there’s no reason to think Roland is the only soldier the White has recruited in the war against chaos. A new protagonist who also seeks to preserve the Dark Tower could be a way to breathe new life into the Dark Tower story, and broaden our perspective on the titular tower.

Another turn of the wheel, or an end to the cycle

It’s pretty heavily implied that Roland is in some kind of time loop, with the narrative returning him to the desert at the end of book seven. Stephen King might continue the tale from there, but with many events changing thanks to Roland having retained the Horn of Eld. It could be a bunch of books, or just a single book that condenses Roland’s journey, highlighting only the things that have changed this time around. Such a story could contain a true ending to the cycle, with Roland finally able to rest at its end. Another option is to tell a story about what happens after this possible final turn of the wheel — what would Mid-world, and indeed the universe at large, be like if Roland succeeds and his journey ends?

What story would you want Stephen King to tell if he does indeed return to Mid-world and the tower? Let us know in the comments!