Amazon’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower book series has found its Gunslinger. Sam Strike (Nightflyers) has been cast as the lead, Roland Deschain, in the project, which I hear is nearing a formal pilot order at the streaming platform.

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Jasper Pääkkönen (Vikings, BlacKkKlansman) will co-star in the drama, from executive producer/showrunner Glen Mazzara and MRC. The project had had a blinking green light for a couple of months, with casting quietly underway. It had been in development at Amazon for almost a year.

The Dark Tower TV series is independent from the film and is meant to be a more faithful retelling of the book than the movie was. I hear it will take place many years before the events depicted in the feature and 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 (Pääkkönen), his first love and his first mission as a gunslinger.

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Pääkkönen is believed to be playing Marten, the character Roland is out to kill.

The 2017 Sony/MRC feature The Dark Tower starred Idris Elba as Roland Deschain.

King’s eight Dark Tower books draw from multiple genres, including dark fantasy, science fantasy, horror, and Western.

Strike is coming off a series regular role on the Syfy/Netflix series Nightflyers, based on the novella by George R.R. Martin. The English actor launched his acting career with main roles on the British series M.I. High and EastEnders. He will next be seen in the HBO/Sky miniseries Chernobyl and will reprise his guest starring role on the second season of David Fincher’s Netflix series Mindhunter. He is repped by Gersh, Circle of Confusion and UK’s The Artists Partnership.

Finnish actor Pääkkönen played Halfdan the Black on History’s Vikings and recently co-starred in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman.He’s repped by ICM Partners and Subtitle Talent in Europe.