Tonight, The Dark Tower will finally arrive on the big screen. It’s taken decades to bring Stephen King‘s magnum opus to the big screen, and the plans to continue the franchise are very much alive. The Dark Tower TV series finally has its showrunner: Glen Mazzara, the former executive producer and showrunner of The Walking Dead.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the story, and got a few words from Mazzara himself as he hinted at some of the things that will be covered in The Dark Tower TV show. “The events of The Gunslinger, Wizard & Glass, The Wind Through the Keyhole, and other tales need a long format to capture the complexity of Roland’s coming of age — how he became the Gunslinger, how Walter became the Man in Black, and how their rivalry cost Roland everything and everyone he ever loved,” said Mazzara. “I could not be more excited to tell this story. It feels like being given the key to a treasure chest. And oh yeah, we’ll have billy-bumblers!”

The Dark Tower TV series will largely take its cues from the fourth novel, Wizard and Glass, which serves as an origin story for the main character, Roland Deschain. Idris Elba is expected to appear on the series as the older Roland in a framing sequence with Tom Taylor as Jake Chambers. Another actor will portray the younger Roland in the series, and it’s not clear if Dennis Haysbert will reprise his role from the film as Roland’s father, Steven Deschain.

Matthew McConaughey will probably not play the Man in Black on the TV series, but Walter’s changing faces should easily allow another actor to perform the part on the show. The first season will have somewhere between 10 and 13 episodes, although there isn’t currently a network attached to the show. Assuming it gets picked up, The Dark Tower TV series will likely begin filming in early 2018.

Are you excited to see Glen Mazzara join The Dark Tower? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comment section below!

Images: Sony Pictures