Summary
For any series that has long and fruitful lives well beyond their first season, one of the storytelling devices that plays so well with audiences is the flashback. For years, fans of the hit showLOSTwaited each week to see new flashbacks to the main characters' lives, waiting to see why Kate was on the run or what happened between Jack and his father. Even shows likeArrowused flashbacks for years, showing what happened to Oliver Queen after he crashed on that deadly island of Lian Yu. When Mike Flanagan brings his vision ofStephen King’sThe Dark Towerto life as a series, flashbacks will play into it greatly, exploring Roland’s life before he began chasing the man in black across the desert. When they get to those flashbacks, there is a group of villains that need to make a splash, and that is the Big Coffin Hunters.
Originally freelance Regulators, the three members of the Big Coffin Hunters that Roland comes into conflict with are influential figures in young Roland’s life, who become pivotal in developing events that lead to Gilead’s ultimate fall.If Roland’s past playsa role in the show’s development, these figures will loom large in the flashbacks, and it is essential to understand what kind of impact they made on the series. That is how vital they are to be included in the first season ofThe Dark Towerseries going forward.
The Dark Tower’s Big Coffin Hunters, EXPLAINED
Led by a man named Eldred Jonas, a former Gunslinger turned Regulator, the Big Coffin Hunters gained their notoriety thanks to the sigil ofa coffin tattooed on their hands. Roland is first introduced to them in the town of Barony of Hambry, after one of the Coffin Hunters begins picking on a local boy named Sheemie, and Roland’s friend Cutheburt steps in to defend the boy, getting the drop on the Coffin Hunter. The situation escalates until Roland is the last one holding a weapon against Eldred Jonas’s head, and the local law is called in to defuse the situation, beginning a rivalry between Roland and Jonas.
At first, it appears the Big Coffin Hunters are called in to become new law enforcement, and are tasked with delivering one of Maerlyn’s spheres, known as Maerlyn’s Grapefruit, to a local woman named Rhea of the Coos. Soon, however, both Roland and his new ally, turned love interest Susan Delgado, discover the truth behind the Big Coffin Hunters:they are agents of John Farson, the enemy leader leading a war against the gunslingers and the kingdom of Gilead, Roland’s home. Although Jonas failed to become a gunslinger due to his lack of morals and inability to feel for others, he is still a deadly warrior, unafraid to do terrible things if asked.
Only in the end, when Roland and his ka-tet arrived, did Eldred Jonas and his Big Coffin Hunters end. After discussing his mission for John Farson with Marten Broadcloak, aka the man in black, Roland defeated Jonas in battle,taking the Grapefruit from Jonasand then taking the leader’s life. In later comic book adaptations, Jonas would appear, taunting Roland when the gunslinger became stuck inside Maerlyn’s Grapefruit. Still, after Jonas’s death, the group disbanded, with the sole survivor becoming a bank robber years later. The legacy of the Big Coffin Hunters ended at Roland’s hands, but not without a terrible cost.
The Big Coffin Hunters' Influence On Roland And The Series At Large
Regarding flashbacks, the Big Coffin Hunters are great villains to bring to the series. They represent everything the Gunslingers and Roland, in particular, stand for. Their apathy towards human life, their lack of morals or decency, and their willingness to fight for Farson’s cruel crusadeand the man in black’s chaotic goalsall play on Roland’s journey, as he struggles with his mission as a gunslinger and his allegiances to Gilead and his friends as he contemplates his love for Susan Delgado and the feelings she brings out in him.
The Big Coffin Hunters also represent Roland’s first big obstacle, having a run-in with them so soon after he passes his test to become a gunslinger. His friends are still in training, and yet are sent on this mission to learn the truth behind the mysterious happenings in this small town by Roland’s father, at first as a way of protecting Roland from those who want the gunslinger dead after surviving his trials, and later as a way of stopping Farson’smovements against Gilead. The overwhelming odds that the Big Coffin Hunters represent and the cruelty they inflict against Roland and his friends is the first twist of the knife in Roland’s long journey to the tower, and helps define the walls and barriers Roland puts up in the years that follow before he meets his newfound family in the main series. This is why season one of theDark Towerseries needs to focus on these villains for the flashbacks.
