Everything regarding The Dark Tower adaptation has been a boatload of confusion. The project spent a good while in development and evolved from a film series to a TV series, to a film series with a TV show filling in the gaps, and then all the way back to a single film.

Last we heard, the upcoming Dark Tower movie was set to a remix of a bunch of bits and pieces of the novels, all while being a sequel to the book series. What’s more, the film seemed to be a bit of a testing ground for the franchise. If the film did well, it would pave the way for more entries, but all the same, it would standalone as its own story.

At the end of the day, I still have no idea what to expect from the movie in terms of quality. Given its and the length of the source material, it has all the makings for a magnificent mess. I wasn’t sure what they expected to end up with if they just pick and choose what elements to include from each book, and it seemed like a recipe for disaster.

Well, don’t resign just yet, as it sounds like the studio has bigger things in mind for the franchise. While the filmmakers have held strong to the idea that we’d only be getting this one film for now, EW has just revealed that the movie’s executive producer and co-screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman, has all kinds of plans to bring a companion TV series to the small screen — and these aren’t just plans…they’re actually already taking action.

According to the outlet, production company MRC is set to produce a full 10-13 episode series that will shoot in 2017 and hit the small screen in 2018. The idea will be for the release to coincide with around the time that the Dark Tower film (which hits theaters on February 17, 2017) hits cable/miscellaneous streaming services — likely to ensure the audience can easily hop from the film to the TV series with little friction. As of this writing, MRC has no distributor, but is reportedly not waiting around. They’ll be taking all the risk and hope that a distributor will hop on board at some point. Given that MRC makes House of Cards, it seems like a safe bet that Netflix could be a potential partner, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Of course, one of the big questions will have to do with the main actors in the film. Will Idris Elba and Tom Taylor be int he TV show? Yes…sort of. EW states that Elba and Taylor have both signed on to appear, but they won’t be the main stars. Their scenes will be the framing device for another story that takes place years before the film. In Elba’s place as the Gunslinger will be another actor portraying a younger version of the character. It’s unknown if McConaughey will reprise his role as the Man in Black, but that seems to be a possibility. That being said, the character is said to take on different names and appearances, and as such, a re-cast for the character wouldn’t be the end of the world.

The Dark Tower movie’s director Nikolaj Arcel and co-writer Anders Thomas Jensen are hard at work on the script as of this writing.

But what will the series use as the source material? EW states that Wizard and Glass will be the book that’s largely adapted for the series, although elements of The Gunslinger, the first book in the series, will also be utilized. The outlet goes on to state that while Wizard and Glass is the fourth book in the series, it mostly focuses on a past adventure of Roland. 

Goldsman told EW:

“In the movie, Roland is suffering tremendous loss. The most concrete, personal, existential heartbreak a character can have. If the movie chronicles his final reach toward hope again, the TV show is the loss of that hope.”

Lastly, it was revealed that while the film will be a mishmash of all the books, the TV series will be a relatively straightforward adaptation of the single book, which could be refreshing, depending on how the film turns out.

What do you think of this news? Are you interested to see the filmmakers tackle Wizard and Glass as a series? Let us know in the comments down below!

Don’t forget to share this post on your Facebook wall and with your Twitter followers! Just hit the buttons on the top of this page.

SOURCE: EW

RELATED: FIRST LOOK AT THE HOTLY-ANTICIPATED DARK TOWER MOVIE