With Matthew McConaughey reportedly circling the villain role Randall Flagg in Sony's long-developing adaptation of The Dark Tower, it became necessary to find an actor who could compete opposite him. According to Deadline, the frontrunner to play the Gunslinger himself, Roland Deschain, is Beasts of No Nation's Idris Elba. Cue the Internet outrage.
With heated arguments already ensuing at the mere mention of Idris Elba as James Bond, one can imagine the angry rhetoric over the actor as the rugged cowboy of Stephen King's seminal fantasy-western series. He'd be doing battle with McConaughey's Flagg, an immortal villain and personification of pure evil who appears in multiple King novels.
While there's no deal in place for Elba just yet, this wouldn't be his first major franchise by a long shot. He's already been part of Prometheus, both Thor movies, and the upcoming Star Trek Beyond. He was also in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance but the less said about that the better. However, he'd be the unquestioned lead this time which is reason enough to be hopeful a deal can be worked out.
If everything works out and The Dark Tower finally gets rolling it will be directed by Nikolaj Arcel for release on January 13th 2017.
