Spoilers: Nikolaj Arcel on The Dark Tower’s ending and possible sequels

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

In case you missed it in the headline, be warned that there will be spoilers for the ending of THE DARK TOWER below. The long-awaited adaptation of Stephen King's epic series was intended to be the beginnings of a new franchise, but based upon its reception thus far, I'm not about to hold my breath for a sequel. However, as the film was relatively cheap to produce ($60 million), there's still the chance that we may get to see the story of THE DARK TOWER continue.

Despite the lackluster reviews, THE DARK TOWER director Nikolaj Arcel seems to remain hopeful for the future of the franchise, telling Coming Soon that he "can’t spoil too much, but I can tell you that you can probably find a lot of that answer in book two, “The Drawing of the Three.” So that’s the best I can do." As I still haven't gotten around to reading the series (I know, I know), I'll leave it up to the folks who have to decide what to make of that statement, but, according to the novel's synopsis, "The Drawing of the Three" finds Roland Deschain encountering "three mysterious doorways on a deserted beach along the Western Sea. Each one enters into a different person’s life in New York—here, he joins forces with the defiant young Eddie Dean, and with the beautiful, brilliant, and brave Odetta Holmes, to save the Dark Tower." Arcel also discussed the ending to THE DARK TOWER which, surprisingly, killed off the Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey). However, Arcel responded to CS' questioning of killing off the main villain by teasing, "Or did we?"

We are going into spoiler territory. I think it’s fair to say that the Man in Black will return, yeah. He’s the main, he’s THE villain. If we had really wanted to kill him off for good, it would’ve been a bigger moment, and I think it was almost like, “Did he die? Did he not?” I don’t know. For me, he certainly didn’t. He is in the later installments of the novels, so yeah.

As I said before, I'm not about to hold my breath when it comes to another feature-film installment of THE DARK TOWER, but hey, stranger things have happened. Even if a sequel doesn't get off the ground, it's possible that we may see the franchise continuing on television in the form of a companion series. Glen Mazzara (The Walking Dead) was recently tapped to run the potential series, which will reportedly be based on "Wizard and Glass," the fourth book in The Dark Tower series, and revolve around a younger Roland and his group. Development is still in the early stages, so, much like THE DARK TOWER sequel, who knows whether it will happen or not.

Let us know your thoughts on THE DARK TOWER in the comments below and whether or not you'd like to see it continue.