The Dark Tower moves again, this time to August

In The Dark Tower, the mythical, shadowy edifice they’re chasing is also elusive. It exists in a trans-dimensional state, and pinning it down to a specific time and place can be difficult.

The same is true of the movie. It just moved back another week, to Aug. 4.

Originally slated for release this past February, the adaptation of Stephen King’s epic six-guns-and-sorcery tale later shifted to July 28 — a date that seemed to stand despite the lack of a single trailer with only about three months to go. (By comparison, the new version of King’s It just dropped its first trailer, and that doesn’t open until Sept. 8.)

Fans expected to get word of another push-back, but when The Dark Tower‘s sleek new poster was released a week ago it doubled-down on the July 28 release date.

RELATED: The Dark Tower: Exclusive First Look Images

The film stars Idris Elba as Roland the Gunslinger, the last of a group of knights from the realm of Mid-World, which has survived apocalyptic upheaval that is now destined for our own dimension. He’s pursuing a magic-wielder known as The Man in Black (Matthew McConaughey), who is rounding up psychics from different worlds to help him track down and destroy the tower, which stands at the nexus of all time and space.

A lot is riding on the movie. Not only does Sony, MRC, and Imagine Entertainment hope to turn it into a big-screen franchise, but MRC is already developing plans for a TV series prequel, which is also being co-written by the film’s director, A Royal Affair filmmaker (and lifelong King fan) Nikolaj Arcel.

Sony showed footage to theater owners at CinemaCon this week, garnering positive buzz from critics and journalists. Everything seemed to be on track. Fan worries about a date shift were allayed.

But now, EW has learned The Dark Tower is indeed abandoning the July 28 date, switching places with Sony’s animated The Emoji Movie.

A Sony spokesperson says the studio “will not move” the date again and that this latest one-week push was done to give The Emoji Movie “more summertime play” before school returns to session and less to do with The Dark Tower, which won’t be as reliant on young viewers.

Sources tell EW a trailer release is imminent, so stay tuned as we prepare to join Roland in our journey to the tower.