The Dark Tower is looming, as production has already started on the Hollywood adaptation of Stephen King's seminal work. With key figures starting to fall into place, the battle across Mid-World is going to finally find its way to the big screen. Though there are still some key roles that need to be filled, and Vikings' star / Captain Marvel hopeful Katheryn Winnick may have just filled one such vacancy.
Variety reports that the actor best known for her role as Lagertha on the smash-hit History Channel show has been cast in a role in The Dark Tower, though an exact role was not mentioned. Katheryn Winnick's casting is the second female cast-member that the film has taken on so far, as Mad Max: Fury Road star Abbey Lee was previously cast as Tirana. With all the secrecy surrounding the film, trying to narrow down Winnick's role is a bit difficult, but there's one possibility that we think makes sense.
Considering the jumbled chronology of The Dark Tower film adaptation, it's a good chance that Katheryn Winnick has been cast in the role of Susan Delgado – a love interest and ally of Roland's that shows up in book 4, "Wizards and Glass." In that book, it's revealed that while Susan is pledged to another man, she can't help but fall in love with famed gunslinger Roland Deschain, which leads to a bunch of complications, and eventually her death. Again, the fact that this first film is somewhat of a hodge podge of characters from as late as even the final book in the series, things could change to certain degrees.
Of course, considering the greatest change of them all seems to be Idris Elba's casting as Roland Deschain himself, there's an outside chance that a similar swap in ethnicity could take place with another key figure in the Dark Tower universe. While a lot of re-writing would need to take place in order for this to work, Katheryn Winnick could be cast in the key role of Susannah Dean – one of the major allies drawn to assist Roland in his quest. With appearances in almost each book, it would be a coup for Winnick to land such a major role. The only problem is that the character is written originally as a black woman involved with the Civil Rights Movement. While the casting of Idris Elba as Roland may have been met with some speculation, a swap with Susannah's ethnicity could cause greater problems with fans, as well as the material originally written for the character.
It's hard to tell where The Dark Tower is going, especially with its unconventional narrative choices and "pick-and-choose" strategy when it comes to the characters and events of Stephen King's epic series. But landing an actress like Katheryn Winnick is no small feat for this ambitious undertaking, especially considering how her time on Vikings has made her into somewhat of an ass-kicker who doesn't suffer fools easily. Here's hoping that she and Matthew McConaughey's mysterious Man In Black get to share some scenes together, as we've got a feeling the ensuing conflict will be pretty entertaining.
The Dark Tower shatters the boundaries between dimensions on February 23rd, 2017. Though you can next see Katheryn Winnick on the big screen in Dean Devlin's Geostorm, which is set to debut in theaters this October.
