Stephen King Hints at a Possible New Dark Tower Story Set in Mejis

It’s happening again. Stephen King is making us think there’s the possibility of another Dark Tower story. As if sitting around waiting for news of the TV adaptation wasn’t hard enough, now we’ve got the man himself teasing us with the incredibly exciting prospect of another foray into Mid-World.

The tweet King is replying to here is a collection of recent posts and retweets by Stephen King on Twitter, containing the following not-so-cryptic responses to Dark Tower related images:

• [The Crimson King] lives.
• Mid-world is still there. The Tower still stands.

He also retweeted a post from a Roland Deschain-themed twitter account that reads “There are no endings. Only new beginnings”, and posted an image of the Michael Whelan painting of Jake and Oy from Dark Tower VII. Obviously, he meant it when he said he can’t stop thinking about Mid-World. Which is understandable, because neither can we. But when the guy who wrote the Dark Tower series starts thinking about Mid-World again, it seems very likely the next step is actually writing about Mid-World. He also said “maybe Mejis” in response to someone asking “Where are you taking us”, which feels like a lot more than just idle pondering!

We know from the above tweet that a possible new Dark Tower novel might take place partially in Mejis, and partially in America — perhaps the real world, or maybe another version of our world like Eddie’s Dean‘s version of New York. King loves stories that take place in two places at once: not only does the Dark Tower series do a lot of world-hopping, but The Talisman and Black House also have this two-worlds-one-story element as one of their central narrative devices. So, it’s unsurprising that King’s pondering two worlds while thinking about another Dark Tower tale.

With that in mind, what characters, settings, and plots might we see in a new Dark Tower story — one that takes place both in Mejis and America? We’d like to share a few possibilities, if it do ya.

The Crimson King

King straight up tells us the Crimson King still lives in one of the tweets referenced above. Guess being almost erased by Peter Danville didn’t quite do it — and after all, his eyes were still there, last we heard. While many of his minions were defeated, the Crimson King is a trig cove, and it stands to reason he wouldn’t let himself be stuck on that balcony forever. While he may not play a central role in a Mejis story, it seems likely his influence would still be felt.

The Dogan

In the Marvel graphic novel The Long Road Home, Sheemie encounters a Dogan out by Xay River Canyon in Mejis Barony. These buildings of North Central Positronics hold technology of the Old People, and therefore could serve as an interesting plot point for a book set in Mejis.

Young(er) Rhea

We know the Crimson King sent Rhea of the Cöos to Hambry (the capital of Mejis) to await his men and receive the Grapefruit — but what was she up to while she waited? “No good” seems a likely answer, and we’d love to see what exactly that looked like.

Sheb

Sheb the piano player pops up multiple times in the series, playing in the saloon in Tull and again in Hambry. While, like Rhea, we don’t know how long he was there for, it would be fun to see him banging out Hey Jude on the piano for a third time. Ka is a wheel, d’ya ken?

A Wild West Tale

Mejis seems to be a blend of Old West and Mexican culture, and therefore the natural locale for a western yarn. It could include gunslingers, or not, but who doesn’t enjoy a good (fictional) shootout at a corral, or on horseback?

Obviously, we’d like to see gunslingers though.

A Fish out of Water

Since King’s been thinking about “America-side” as well, we’d be remiss not to speculate a little on what that aspect of a possible new novel would entail. One fun trope we’d love to see repeated is the character brought to a new, unfamiliar world. Since we already did Roland in New York, perhaps a tough New York cop — with gunslinger steel in them, naturally — could find themselves in Mid-World this time around.

We’ve only scratched the surface of “What ifs” — let us know in the comments what you expect, or would like to see, in a possible new Dark Tower novel from Stephen King!