Mike Flanagan’s TV adaptation of The Dark Tower is still years away, but he already has the perfect actor to play Roland Deschain. While Mike Flanagan has confirmed the order of his The Dark Tower adaptation and has publicly said that he’s done writing the first season, the show is still years away. Flanagan has mentioned that the sheer scope and scale of The Dark Tower makes it difficult to get studios on board, and the myriad of crossovers from and references to Stephen King’s other books create rights problems.
On top of those problems, Flanagan still needs to cast The Dark Tower. One of the hardest parts of adapting a book into live-action is casting the right actors to play beloved characters, and The Dark Tower is no exception. This series is one of Stephen King’s most beloved and important works, so much so that King himself described The Dark Tower as his magnum opus. Finding actors who both look like Roland and his ka-tet and can do justice to their characters will be no easy feat.
Luckily, though there is no official casting news, Flanagan’s The Dark Tower already has the perfect actor to play Roland Deschain. The central hero of The Dark Tower as a whole, Roland is described physically in King’s books as being very tall, lanky, and having blue “bombardier’s” eyes. He also goes through a complete emotional transformation through the books, starting out as an obsessive and mean gunslinger and ending up as a father figure to the ka-tet. Finding the right actor to play him shouldn’t be easy, but it is.
Scott Eastwood Would Be Perfect For Mike Flanagan’s The Dark Tower Series
Scott Eastwood, son of legendary Western actor Clint Eastwood, is the perfect choice to play Roland Deschain in Mike Flanagan’s The Dark Tower. Roland himself is largely based on Clint Eastwood’s likeness, especially in his iconic role, the Man with No Name. Stephen King has outright said he was inspired by Eastwood’s appearance and portrayal of the character, Jake Chambers directly references the similarities between Roland and Eastwood in The Waste Lands, and even the original cover art of the entire series is directly inspired by Eastwood’s likeness.
Clint Eastwood is currently 96 years old and retired from acting, two facts that make it impossible for him to play Roland. Scott Eastwood, however, is 40, has blue eyes, is nearly six feet tall, and is the spitting image of his father. Aside from going back in time to adapt The Dark Tower in 1966 with Clint, Scott Eastwood is the closest thing there is to a perfect visual match for Roland Deschain.
Scott Eastwood’s looks and relation to Clint Eastwood aren’t the only reasons he would be perfect as Roland, either. Eastwood already has quite a bit of experience as an action star in movies like Pacific Rim: Uprising and The Fate of the Furious. That makes him perfect for the physicality of Roland and his role as a Gunslinger. He’s also great at playing a grizzled and stony type of character, but he can also soften himself. Both of those are great qualities for Roland, who goes through a major transformation in The Dark Tower. In other words, Scott Eastwood was born to play Roland Deschain.
Casting The Right Lead Is Vital For The Dark Tower’s Success
Getting the right person to play Roland Deschain — ideally, Scott Eastwood — is absolutely vital for the success of Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of The Dark Tower. Roland is the franchise’s main character, the leader of the ka-tet, and the only member of the group who is actually familiar with Mid-World. As such, he’ll have to be the audience’s guide to Mid-World and the history of The Dark Tower. That’s a ton of pressure to put on a single role, and it needs an appropraitely strong actor to pull off.
A huge chunk of The Dark Tower‘s story in Wizard and Glass also concerns flashbacks to Roland’s youth. More than Eddie, Susannah, or Jake, Roland is the single most important character in The Dark Tower. Everything revolves around him and his quest for the Tower. An adaptation lives or dies on how well it portrays Roland. If Mike Flanagan doesn’t get him right, there’s very little hope he’ll manage to do anything else properly.
The Dark Tower is also, as previously mentioned, going to be a massive undertaking. Flanagan is planning on doing five seasons of television and two feature films. Whoever plays Roland is essentially going to be the tent pole of a new fantasy horror franchise. He’ll be as important as Robert Downey Jr. was to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Roland is the foundation of The Dark Tower; without a knockout actor to play him, everything falls apart.
- Upcoming TV Shows
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The Dark Tower
- Movie(s)
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The Dark Tower
- Character(s)
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Roland Deschain, The Man in Black, Jake Chambers, Eddie Dean, Susannah Dean, Oy, The Crimson King, Stephen Deschain, Sayre, Tirana
