The Dark Tower wraps filming; Idris Elba’s Gunslinger accent revealed

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

THE DARK TOWER has finished production, after shooting for fifteen weeks in South Africa and New York! Nikolaj Arcel's Stephen King adaptation is the subject of the July 22/29 edition of Entertainment Weekly, and they sat down with lead actor Idris Elba at Comic-Con to discuss his character, the Gunslinger. They may have completed shooting, but that doesn't mean he can take a break just yet.

In the interview, they discuss a very important element of the character: the accent. Elba himself is British, but his character isn't even from the world as we know it. While the Gunslinger isn't a particularly talkative character (in fact, during two particular days of shooting he didn't say a single word), the Mad Max-ish badass has to say something. Here's how Elba describes the accent.

We essentially ended up doing sort of a very flat American accent that had almost an Old Worldy cadence. 

He goes on to describe it as neither Shakespearean nor modern, but somewhere in between. This character is formulated of a lot of in-betweens. He's not a cowboy, but he's a gunslinger, so there's a lot of precarious balance there. It's actually one of the more interesting interviews I've seen coming out of Comic-Con so far.

The full video is embedded below! They start discussing DARK TOWER at around 3:10 and the accent at 3:40. Stick around to hear them talk more about the Gunslinger, including his costume design.

THE DARK TOWER is:

Based on the Stephen King-penned fantasy series. The film will follow a wandering knight who is the last hope of the fallen land of Mid-World. He is charged with finding the Dark Tower while battling his nemesis the Man in Black.

The cast also ncludes Tom Taylor as Roland's young sidekick Jake Chambers, Matthew McConaughey as the villainous Man in Black, Fran Kranz as the MIB's right hand man Pimli, Katheryn Winnick as an unknown character, and Abbey Lee as Tirana, who was a minor baddie in the climactic book.

THE DARK TOWER will rise into theaters on February 17, 2017.