‘The Dark Tower’ Film Adaptation Wraps Production; Idris Elba Talks Portraying a Character Originally Depicted as Caucasian, Describes Gunslinger Accent

‘The Dark Tower’ film adaptation has officially wrapped production. Idris Elba, who stars in the lead role as the Gunslinger, talked about portraying a character depicted as a Caucasian in original artwork. He also described his character’s accent for the upcoming film.

According to Jo Blo, production on the upcoming film adaptation of Stephen King’s novels has finally come to completion. Filming took place for 15 weeks and began in South Africa in April 2016. Some scenes were also shot in New York City.

Idris Elba is set to take on the lead role of Roland Deschain a.k.a. the Gunslinger. The character is the main protagonist and hero of the original series of books. He is descended from a long line of peacekeepers called the gunslingers and is also the final human descendant of Arthur Eld, the ancient king of All-World and a great hero of the Mid-World.

Elba’s casting as Roland was met with much controversy from fans of the original novels. The character was depicted in various artworks as a Caucasian man resembling a cowboy from old Western films.

According to Time, Elba seemed confident enough despite the casting controversy. He admitted that it was better to treat the issue as if it was not a big deal during an interview with Entertainment Weekly.

Elba said, “There should be no difference. The character that was written in Stephen’s imagination, it could be any color. It just happens to be me and, you know? In the artwork, it just so happens to be a white guy, but I don’t think that makes any difference…I think what’s great about it, if I want to say anything about it, is that it is a sign of the times in terms of a colorless society. People go, ‘A good actor is a good actor,’ you know?”

The 43-year old British actor went on to express his excitement over the opportunity of playing the character. He said, “I was thrilled to get this job. I was thrilled because, you know, it’s an alternative to what you could say, what Roland is described as… A white guy in a sense, but, also just that you could make a version of this film that appealed to a slightly more action-hero type character and I don’t do those films... It’s an iconic character. I want to get it right.”

Meanwhile, Elba revealed his gunslinger’s accent during a recent interview with EW at the San Diego Comic-Con. He said that Roland speaks in “a very flat American accent that had almost an Old Worldy cadence.”

‘The Dark Tower’ is an upcoming adventure-fantasy and science-fiction film based on Stephen King’s series of novels of the same name. It is co-written and directed by Nikolaj Arcel and stars Elba, Matthew McConaughey, Katheryn Winnick, Jackie Earle Haley, Abbey Lee, Claudia Kim, Nicholas Hamilton, and Tom Taylor among others.

The film is produced under Sony Pictures Entertainment, Imagine Entertainment, Media Rights Capital, and Weed Road Pictures. It is distributed by Columbia Pictures in the United states and is scheduled to premiere in theaters on February 17, 2017.