As constant readers of The Dark Tower book series will know, Stephen King’s epic pulls out and is referenced in all his other titles. The first attempt at adapting the books for the big screen only hinted at this with barely visible Easter eggs. However, if it were up to Mike Flanagan, his new at-bat for The Dark Tower could come from all corners of the King Universe. At least in theory. Speaking on the Script Apart podcast (H/T rich), Flanagan opened up about his love for the characters in Doctor Sleep that he spent time with as a creative and how they might be brought to The Dark Tower.

“The thing about the King universe is that it’s all connected. And the hub of those connections is The Dark Tower,” Flanagan teased. “So I currently have the rights to that, I’m hoping I can keep them long enough to get it made, but that’s another thing that is always an opportunity. In the Dark Tower universe, there are all those other characters from the King world that come into play in different ways, and that’s one where you make changes to the source material to introduce characters that could have played a really important role in that story the way it was structured… Doctor Sleep is after that written The Dark Tower was completed Abra Stone in the Dark Tower universe, as Breaker [telepathic agent]is really interesting.”

He continued, “There’s a character in The Dark Tower called Dandelo, who I think is a cousin of the True Knot, who is this emotional vampire but who feeds on laughter instead of fear. But there’s room in that world for the True Knot itself there’s room for Rose The Hat There might be room for Danny Torrance There are all sorts of things that could be great, if we manage to get that property up and running There are ways to other bringing in things from the King universe, and I think The Shining universe – the Doctor Sleep universe – could fit very seamlessly into it. Especially since Dick Hallorann in our movie pretty much references The Dark Tower in his last scene with Dan.”

Flanagan also worked out plans that he previously had to flesh out the characters for Doctor Sleep. Prior to the film’s opening, he developed plans for spin-offs, focusing on both Dick Hallorann and an Overlook origin story. While the door has largely closed on those projects, he added, “Maybe some of those ideas can find a new way to come back.” As they say, all things serve the beam.

It was then confirmed that Flanagan had managed to secure the rights to Stephen King’s The Dark Tower it came with no confirmation of where the adaptation might land. Despite having an overall deal with Amazon Prime Video, Flanagan confirmed he could set up The Dark Tower everywhere because it was separate from his Prime contract. There’s currently no guarantee it’ll even get made at this point, but if he gets back to his collaborators at Warner Bros., maybe getting some of these characters in there would be a little easier.

(H/T rich)