'The Dark Tower' TV Series Will Include Idris Elba

For a decade now, Akiva Goldsman has been working on bringing Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower' novel series to the small screen, alongside fellow talents Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. With a sequel to the books now scheduled to hit movie theatres across the globe in just a couple of months however, rumours have been circulating about whether or not the show would be moving ahead.

Fortunately for fans, it's still on track, with those behind-the-scenes simply waiting for the right time to launch it, and likely waiting to see exactly how well-received the film is upon its release.

The promotion for 'The Dark Tower' hasn't been as big as some of Hollywood's hardest hitters, but it's fair to say that there should be enough out there to grab attention, with merchandise in the form of Funko figures and posters available.

Exactly how well it'll do in the box office come October however remains to be seen. There's every chance it could bomb, which would likely see 10 years of hard work on the TV show to be scrapped.

Speaking with the TV series' producer and co-writer Goldsman, Deadline learned that Elba would very much be involved if the TV series started official production. He explained: "The first episode of a show has been written, and we hope to retain Ron’s original idea to mix platforms, something that seemed revolutionary 10 years ago but now is something that others have done. Idris for sure is part of this, and if the movie is Roland Deschain the gunslinger, the show is his origin story, based on the fourth novel in the series, 'Wizard and Glass'."

As mentioned, the show will launch with book number four, which for the most part tells its story in a huge flashback, revealing the origins of the Gunslinger. This would mean that Elba's parts would actually be pretty small, with an all-new cast hired to take on the role of the younger Deschain and any supporting characters.

Telling a singular story across both mediums of television and film is something that's very rarely done, but could absolutely work with the right people behind it. We've seen Marvel and DC do very well on both TV and in cinema, but they're usually telling a series of separate stories existing in different universes.

That's not to say those who simply wanted to watch the TV series couldn't do so without first seeing the movie. Writers will be making sure that anybody new to the franchise could come in cold no matter what, but hopefully working closely with one another so that their 'Dark Tower' universe feels incredibly fleshed out.

Whatever the case may be, King's world is one that we'll seemingly be confronted with for quite some time in the near future. We can't wait to see how it all turns out.

More: What To Expect From Stephen King's 'The Dark Tower'

'The Dark Tower' hits cinemas across the UK on August 18, 2017.