Walter, the Man in Black

Walter has watched the gunslinger order fall and Gilead turn to ruins. He dresses well, smiles easily and treats people as pieces in a game he thinks he has already won.

He lives in Mid-World but crosses through portals at will and knows Jake's New York well. To him, other people's pain is just a tool. What matters is the end of the Tower.

Walter has an old plan: topple the Dark Tower, which protects every world, and open the way for the monster waiting outside. For that he needs children with the shine.

His servants, creatures who wear human skin as a disguise, kidnap these children from many worlds and strap them into a machine that fires their mental power at the Tower. So far, none has been strong enough.

Walter doesn't need weapons. He tells someone to stop breathing, and they stop. He catches bullets in midair. He shows up wherever he likes.

The only one still standing against him is Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger, whose father Walter removed from the board. To Walter, Roland is a nuisance, nothing more. Then Jake Chambers turns up, a boy with the strongest shine he has ever seen.

Walter sends his people after Jake in New York and in Mid-World. The village where the seer Arra shelters the boy comes under attack.

When Jake goes home, Walter is already there. He kills the boy's mother and makes it clear nowhere is safe. Soon after, his servants catch Jake at a crossing between worlds.

With Jake in the machine, the Tower starts to give. Roland storms the base, and Walter faces him in person.

The sorcerer disarms the gunslinger, wounds him and seems to have won. But Jake recites the creed, and Roland pulls off a trick shot Walter can't stop. The Man in Black dies, the machine is destroyed and the Tower holds.

Matthew McConaughey plays Walter. In Stephen King's books, the Man in Black blurs into other King villains, such as Randall Flagg from The Stand.