Stephen King’s Dark Tower makes its big screen debut in just a few weeks, and long-gestating plans are already underway to expand the franchise to television. If that actually happens, it’ll focus on Idris Elba’s Gunslinger.

Producer Akiva Goldsman told Deadline the pilot of the TV series has already been written, and the project is being designed to work as a prequel series telling the story of the Gunslinger — complete with Idris Elba back in the role of Roland Deschain — telling stories more familiar to book fans. Though Stephen King’s Dark Tower saga spans eight books, the film itself is actually set after the story in the books. The film's runtime is also a mere 95 minutes, which is surprisingly brisk for something based on such a massive and dense saga.

Check out an except from his comments below:

“The first episode of a show has been written, and we hope to retain Ron Howard’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.”

It’s great to see the creative team is hedging its bets and working ahead, but the odds for a television series will almost certainly depend upon the success of the film when it opens August 18. Sadly for fans, the film isn’t trending all that well, but here's hoping it finds an audience.

what do you think? Would you like to see a more traditional take on Dark Tower as a TV series?

Video of The Dark Tower – International Trailer #2

(Via Deadline)