The First Trailer For The Dark Tower Is Finally Here

For those of us who love Stephen King's epic fantasy/western/horror/sci-fi series The Dark Tower, it honestly seemed like this day would never come. A film adaptation of what King himself has described as his magnum opus has been floating in development limbo for at least a decade, seeming to alternate over whether it would be better suited to TV or film. Now, just a few short months away from its release in theaters, we finally have a trailer, and it looks incredible.

The road to get here has been long and winding. When it was announced that Idris Elba had been cast as Roland Deschain, some people had a lot of feelings about the fact they hadn't cast based off his description in the book (basically Clint Eastwood). Finally getting to see him as the Gunslinger, and Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black will definitely put any fears about the casting choices to rest. And if the trailer itself isn't proof enough of that, the Twitter exchange the two had on Tuesday before the trailer dropped should be.

The film has been positioned as more of a sequel to the books rather than a straight adaptation, with King tweeting an image with the Horn of Eld captioned "Last Time Around," a reference fans will definitely recognize. Considering they would have 8 books worth of story to cover, this might be the smartest way to get the movie off the ground. At the very least, the trailer makes it look like the movie is going to be full of plenty of heart-stopping action. For the most hardcore of King fans, watch closely around the 35-second mark for an Easter egg reference to another of his famous works. The Dark Tower comes out in theaters on August 4th, until then I'll just be watching this trailer on repeat.