Sam Strike (Nightflyers, Chernobyl, EastEnders) has been cast to star in Amazon's The Dark Tower, an adaptation of Stephen King's book series per Deadline. Jasper Pääkkönen (Vikings, BlacKkKlansman) will co-star in the project that has been in development for over a year which is nearing a pilot order at Amazon.
Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead, Damien, The Shield) will serve as the showrunner. The project is being produced by Media Rights Capital (MRC).
Strike will star as Roland Deschain. Deadline notes that Pääkkönen is playing Marten Broadcloak, a character Roland wants to kill, and one of the many identities of Randall Flagg (The Man in Black). The series is seperate from the recent movie adaptation which starred Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey and is expected to be a more faithful retelling of Stephen King's books. It will take place before the events of the movie and will be an origin story.
The series will focus on Roland Deschain's (Strike) origin story – how he first became a gunslinger and got his guns, his first conflict with the man in black, his first love and his first mission as a gunslinger.
Source:
— Sam Strike (@SamStrike) March 21, 2019
‘The Dark Tower’: Sam Strike Cast As Gunslinger Roland Deschain Amazon Pilot Order | Deadline https://t.co/S1T9NVLZOE
— Glen Mazzara (@glenmazzara) March 21, 2019