Dreamcasting Mike Flanagan’s Dark Tower – The Side Characters

Mike Flanagan posted this Instagram story recently, noticeably after my first blog about dreamcasting the main characters of the Dark Tower series.

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DO YOU SEE IT? Mike Flanagan’s wife and constant collaborator Kate Siegel reading The Gunslinger, the first novel in the Stephen King dark fantasy series The Dark Tower?! COINCIDENCE?!

Almost certainly.

EXCEPT, then Mike Flanagan posted “Rahul Kohli fighting a bear,” which is what would happen if Rahul Kohli was playing Eddie and had to fight Shardik the giant cyborg bear in the third Dark Tower novel, The Wastelands. THINK ABOUT IT.

Anywhere, I’m here this week to dreamcast more Dark Tower characters with actors who’ve previously starred or appeared in Flanagan’s works. Because like I said last week, no one is strong enough to stop me.

Anyway! Let’s go!

Donald Callahan – Bruce Greenwood

Donald Callahan, also known as Father Callahan or Pere Callahan, is a transplant character from Stephen King’s second published novel, Salem’s Lot. He makes his startling reappearance in the Kingverse in the fifth novel of the Dark Tower series. It’s kind of a huge spoiler to talk about Callahan’s role more than that, but despite arriving late in the series he becomes fairly pivotal to the story.

Bruce Greenwood should be in everything, so that’s my first point. My second point is that Father Callahan has a huge, tragic arc, from his failure in Salem’s Lot to his attempts at redemption in the Dark Tower series, and it’s gonna take a great actor with the bottomless charisma of Bruce Greenwood to pull him off.

Previously Flanaganned in: Gerald’s Game, as the titular Gerald.

Mia, Daughter of None – Kate Siegel

Mia is probably the weirdest fucking character in a story filled with weird characters. To keep it short and spoiler-free, she isn’t exactly a human or even a real living thing, but her and Susannah have to learn to work together or at the very least kill each other before the series’ end.

Kate Siegel is a great choice for this super odd but incredibly important character, because she can play mean and creepy (Bly Manor) and maternal and soulful (Midnight Mass), and bad-bitch (Haunting of Hill House), which all suit the long, strange journey of Mia.

Previously Flanaganned in: The Fall of the House of Usher, Midnight Mass, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, Hush, everything literally everything.

Cort Andrus – Robert Longstreet

Cort Andrus is the two-fisted, cussin’, spittin’ son of a bitch who trains the gunslingers of Gilead. This dude eats sand and shits out glass, he is the original motherfucker. While he doesn’t get much “onscreen” time, the voice of Cort is Roland’s constant companion on his journey, reminding him of his gunslinger training and the lessons the old bastard tried to impart in Roland’s thick skull.

Robert Longstreet just exudes badassery, and he’s got the deep, raw voice of a man who drinks only whiskey/cigar smoothies.

Previously Flanaganned in: The Midnight Club, Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep, The Haunting of Hill House, fucking a lot it’s a lot.

Steven Deschain – Michiel Huisman

Steven Deschain is the dinh of Gilead, basically it’s king, and he’s descended from one of the bastards of Arthur Eld (King Arthur) himself. He’s also the father of our protagonist, Roland Deschain. He’s a tough dad to live up to, and a tragic, complicated character for whom life, destiny, and timing just didn’t work out.

Michiel Huisman is perhaps best known as “Second Daario Naharis” on Game of Thrones, and could easily bring the combination of severity, exhaustion, and odd dignity the character requires. Plus, picture him with that mustache. I’m here for it.

Previously Flanaganned in: Haunting of Hill House as the conflicted but easy-to-dislike Steven Crain.

Gabrielle Deschain – Amelia Eve

Gabrielle Deschain is Roland’s mother and Steven’s wife, another character for whom life before and during the Fall of Gilead was extremely hard and incredibly short. Gabrielle plays a part in the destruction of Gilead, but whether she’s a victim or a betrayer (or both) is left forever ambiguous, much to Roland’s eternal dismay.

Amelia Eve not only has the look, but she can carry the maddening mystery of Gabrielle without losing the more sympathetic side of the character.

Previously Flanaganned in: Haunting of Bly Manor, as the fiery but haunted Jamie Taylor.

Wizard and Glass Characters Next Week

Okay, so, it turns out there are way too many characters in the Dark Tower to do it all in two reasonably-sized blogs! I’ll return next weekish with a look at dreamcasting the characters from the flashback novel Wizard and Glass.

Excelsior!