Stephen King Confirmed 'The Dark Tower' Movie Will Star Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey

Stephen King confirmed the casting of a movie based on the 'Dark Tower' book series on Twitter:


via @StephenKing

If you're wondering who's who, Idris Elba offers a pretty obvious clue:


via @idriselba

So it seems like Idris Elba will be 'the gunslinger'. That leaves McConaughey as the 'man in black'.

via @McConaughey

The casting of Idris Elba as 'the gunslinger', also named Roland Deschain, has brought some controversy. As with any movie that casts a traditionally white character as someone of any other race, there was some backlash. There are also fans who were concerned about the change affecting Deschain's relationship with a major character in the story. Well, the producer of the movie and apparent badass, Akiva Goldsman, spoke to IGN to assuage everyone's worries:

I understand that people who are thoughtful about the storytelling and the racial politics of the storytelling might want to understand how that informs that storytelling, and I respect that and I hear that, and those things are not things we didn't think about or don't think about. The racist a--holes should go f--k themselves.

For anyone who somehow still isn't convinced that Idris Elba is the right man for the job, it's worth noting that Stephen King himself is also totally cool with it:


via @StephenKing

With any luck, 'The Dark Tower' is set to release January 27, 2017.