“The man in black fled across the desert and the gunslinger followed” — every fan of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series has that opening line from The Gunslinger seared into their brains. We’ve already gotten a look at Idris Elba as the heroic gunslinger Roland Deschain, but today brings our first peek at the other half of that equation thanks to some new set photos of Matthew McConaughey.

The photos have been making the usual social media rounds, and fans seem pretty stoked about McConaughey’s darker look for The Dark Tower:

Early on, many fans expressed their desire to see McConaughey in the role of Roland, but that casting seemed too easy. It just wouldn’t be very surprising or interesting to see the charismatic southern actor play a rugged, gun-slinging hero — which makes his casting as the series’ elusive antagonist far more intriguing. And there’s something kind of cool about this goth version of McConaughey, no? Sure, he looks like he’s getting ready to front a Bauhaus cover band, but that’s awesome.

Nikolaj Arcel (A Royal Affair) is directing the long-gestating adaptation of The Dark Tower, working from a script by Akiva Goldsman and Jeff Pinkner, which was revised by Anders Thomas Jensen (Men & Chicken). The film centers on Roland, the last in a line of gunslingers, as he endeavors to stop the Man in Black (aka Randall Flagg) and reach the titular tower before evil forces can use it to destroy the world.

Fans of King’s novel series may also be interested in a particularly exciting photo the author shared not long ago, which could explain Arcel & Co’s approach to adapting this sprawling story (basically, it’s more of a sequel of sorts).

The Dark Tower also stars Fury Road’s Abbey Lee, Jackie Earle Haley, Fran Kranz, Vikings star Katheryn Winnick and newcomer Tom Taylor, and hits theaters on February 17, 2017.

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