Sagaspedia
What changed in the movie
What changed in the movie, title by title: 22 in total. Tap a cover to open it. Titles you haven't marked as read stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- ChangeJake doesn't fall in the movie
In the book, under the mountains, Roland lets Jake fall into the abyss so he won't lose the man in black. The movie never sacrifices Jake: he becomes the heart of the story and Roland's partner.
source ↗ - ChangeNo Tull
The massacre at Tull, where Roland kills an entire town the man in black turned against him, is one of the book's best-known passages. The movie leaves it out.
source ↗ - ChangeA new face for Roland
The book's Roland is described as white and was inspired by Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name. The movie cast Idris Elba, and King said the gunslinger's race didn't matter.
source ↗ - ChangeThe man in black and Marten
In the book, the man in black reveals he was once Marten, the wizard who tricked young Roland and seduced his mother. The movie's Walter has no such tie to Roland's mother.
source ↗
- Behind the scenesThis was the sequel plan
Nikolaj Arcel said a sequel to the 2017 film would adapt The Drawing of the Three, with Eddie and Susannah. King suggested it be R-rated and include the lobstrosities. It never got made.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesRenewal
Each book in the series has a subtitle. This one's is "Renewal", and it fits: this is where Roland stops walking alone.
source ↗
- ChangeNo Eddie or Susannah
In the book, Jake joins a group that already has Roland, Eddie and Susannah. The movie drops both and keeps only Roland and Jake; Arcel saved Eddie and Susannah for a sequel.
source ↗ - ChangeThe Dutch Hill house
In the book, Jake crosses into Roland's world through a door in a haunted house on Dutch Hill, New York. The movie keeps the idea of a New York house as the boy's portal.
source ↗ - ChangeA paradox, not the shine
In the book, Jake's mind splits because of a paradox: he remembers a death that never happened. In the movie, his visions come from the shine, the gift that makes Walter hunt him.
source ↗ - ChangeNo Oy, no Lud, no Blaine
Oy the billy-bumbler, the city of Lud and Blaine the Mono, with the riddle contest that ends the book, don't appear in the movie.
source ↗
- ReferenceThe Stand's Topeka
The empty Topeka the group finds was wiped out by Captain Trips, the same superflu from The Stand. Graffiti mentions "the walking dude", Randall Flagg's nickname in that book.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesThe show that would adapt it
In 2016 the plan was a 2018 TV series, run by Glen Mazzara, adapting Wizard and Glass and The Wind Through the Keyhole. It never happened.
source ↗
- Behind the scenesIt lost to Doctor Sleep
In 2009, King held a reader poll to pick his next book. This story narrowly lost to Doctor Sleep. Both came out years later.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesFairy tales that became a novel
King first described the project as a set of modern fairy tales. It grew into the series' eighth book, slotted between the fourth and fifth.
source ↗
- ReferenceSeven Samurai in Mid-World
A town hires gunslingers to defend it from raiders. King acknowledged the influence of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and its remake, The Magnificent Seven.
source ↗ - ReferenceA priest from 'Salem's Lot
Father Callahan comes from 'Salem's Lot, another King novel. His Maine backstory is the same as in that book.
source ↗
- ReferenceStephen King, character
In this book, Stephen King himself enters the story as a character, a writer in 1977 Maine.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesA journal at the end
The book closes with excerpts from a King journal, from 1977 to 1999, about writing the first four volumes.
source ↗
- Behind the scenesAn award at the end of the road
The final volume won the 2005 British Fantasy Award.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesTwelve and a half years to start
King began the series in 1970 on a ream of green paper he found at a library. Finishing the first book took twelve and a half years; closing the saga took 34.
source ↗
- Behind the scenesBorn in an anthology
The novella first appeared in the 1998 anthology Legends, alongside stories by other fantasy authors. It was later collected in Everything's Eventual.
source ↗ - Behind the scenesPaired with The Gunslinger
In 2009, Grant published the novella in a limited edition alongside the revised Gunslinger, both illustrated by Michael Whelan.
source ↗
Locked. These details give away parts of the title. Mark it as seen to unlock.
Original text by Sagaspedia. Posters: The Movie Database (TMDB); character photos via Wikipedia. This site uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB. All trademarks and titles mentioned belong to their respective owners. Streaming availability may change.
As an Amazon Associate, Sagaspedia earns from qualifying purchases.
About · Contact · Privacy · [email protected]