By Nick Venable | 6 years ago

One might have thought that the massive success of HBO’s Game of Thrones over the past four years would have led to a surge in adaptations of long, epic fantasy tales. But that hasn’t really been the case, as evidenced by the pronounced delays and lack of progress in getting Stephen King’s magnum opus, The Dark Tower, brought to screens either big or small. Most recently, Ron Howard planned to turn the book series into a multi-platform feature and television franchise, but it’s been sitting on the back burner for quite a while now, due to studios balking at shelling out the production costs. Luckily, we now have a pretty good idea of what the world might have looked like, thanks to some pretty sweet concept art.

The images originated from an Imgur user (via ComicBookMovie), so I guess we can’t speak authoritatively on their legitimacy. But even if this is just a random artist creating Dark Tower concept art, we’re still impressed. These are the kind of images that someone over at Telltale Games should look at and think, “Say, let’s make one of our superb adventure games out of this and give the world the Man in Black that it deserves.”

So, without further ado, here are some of the most striking images of the bunch. First up is a thinny, and you might not want to get too close, lest it take your hat/body/sanity. One wonders if Howard, or whatever other director steps in, would film the thinny in CGI, or if they’d head out to Eyebolt Canyon to get actual footage of one. Why are you looking at me like I’m the crazy one?

Below is a Manni village. An idyllic place full of geometric homes and bearded Amish people, none of which happen to be out and about.

If you guys are looking for an awesome place to party, head on over to the Speaking Ring, where you’ll probably find a demon willing to do the beast with, like, seven backs.

There’s still a chance that we’ll see these images come alive in an actual production, as executive producers Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Stephen King, and screenwriter Akira Goldsman are all still game to make it happen, assuming they can find a studio willing to foot the bill. Universal and Warner Bros. have already ducked out, so it’s up to Legendary or Paramount, maybe.

Last year, when the project was in more active development, someone created an animated fly-through of Tull, a town in which our hero Roland has quite a bit of trouble with nearly every single person.

It’s nice to know what might have been, but it’s more exciting to anticipate its future arrival in our lives. Write your local congressman and tell them The Dark Tower needs to be made. If your congressman happens to be Randall Flagg, you might want to consider relocating.