Rahul Kohli, star of Flanagan's Netflix series Midnight Mass, made a cryptic reference to possible casting news regarding Stephen King's The Dark Tower.The Dark Tower - King's magnum fantasy-horror-action opus encompassing eight books, a novella and its own Marvel comics series - has long been the property his fans have most hoped to see properly adapted. When it was announced that Flanagan, of the recent King adaptations Gerald's Game and The Shining sequel titled Doctor Sleep, books that many considered unadaptable, got the Dark Tower rights, and Amazon was looking to bite, hope sprang up again for long-time fans. The big questions then became about who was going to be cast.Flanagan is well-known for working with actors again and again. He has worked with such talents as Carla Gugino, Henry Thomas, and Kate Siegel (amongst others) three, four, and even more times. It would make sense to return to the familiar, especially for as daunting a process as adapting The Dark Tower would be, and Kohli, who is another 'threepeat' in the Flanagan stable, would be a shoo-in for casting in the series, the question coming down to who he’d be playing. Joking about how he’d guessed right about Henry Cavill taking on the Warhammer 40K franchise (another Amazon entry) in an earlier tweet, Kohli then said he was waiting on casting news about Amazon's The Dark Tower series.
With the news that Flanagan has the rights to King's The Dark Tower, and Amazon Studios champing at the bit to expand their fantasy streaming catalogue, eyes have shifted to when possible casting announcements might be coming, and Kohli jumped into that fray in a big way. Standing at 6’3” (or 6’4” depending on the source) and weighing 200 pounds (or under, again depending on the source), the man has already played a denim-clad sheriff in Midnight Mass, a show inspired by the work of King, which isn’t too far off from the incredibly lanky gunslinger, Roland of Gilead, whose adventures in King's novel are centered around. Jumping from playing a King-inspired gunslinger to King's actual one wouldn’t be a huge stretch for the talented actor.
The only hang-up regarding that casting would be Kohli's age—37, perhaps too young for the weather-beaten and grizzled gunslinger—and the fact that he’s played a similar role for Flanagan already. The youthful actor would be an equally good fit for Roland's companion, a junkie pulled into The Dark Tower from the world of 1980s New York via a magical doorway known to fans as Eddie Dean. It would be a turn that would see Kohli and Flanagan have the opportunity to develop something new and something Kohli could pull off just as easily.
Fans have good reason to trust Flanagan when it comes to the works of King, even with something that seems as impossible to pull off as The Dark Tower. Whether Kohli was joking in his tweet or making a reference to possible upcoming casting news is going to be the thing that The Dark Tower fans are waiting to find out.
The Dark Tower is in development at Amazon Studios.
Source: Rahul Kohli/Twitter