Twelve years after Deadwood last aired on HBO, the network finally announced plans to revive the gritty Western series as a feature-length film.
Plans for a Deadwood movie have routinely sputtered in the dozen years since the David Milch-produced show ended abruptly after its third season. However, HBO president Casey Bloys assured the Television Critics Association Wednesday that production on the long-awaited revival would begin this fall.
“We’re looking at an October start date,” Bloys told the TCA, adding that Deadwood vet Daniel Minahan is lined up to direct the film. “We worked very hard to get this together. It has been a logistics nightmare to get all the cast members together.”
Bloys added that if the film does go into production this fall as planned, the network is aiming for a spring 2019 premiere date.
Despite an initial run of only 36 episodes, Deadwood landed at Number 23 on Rolling Stone‘s list of the 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, as well as one of our 11 Greatest Gone-Too-Soon TV Shows.
However, this isn’t the first time an HBO president has pledged a Deadwood revival. In August 2015, then-programming president Michael Lombardo told TVLine that he gave the greenlight to a Deadwood movie. “[Milch] has our commitment that we are going to do it,” Lombardo said. “It’s going to happen.” Lombardo left his post less than a year later, throwing the revival back into production purgatory.
As recently as March, Timothy Olyphant, who played protagonist Seth Bullock on the series, said of a Deadwood movie, “There’s no fucking way it’s ever going to happen,” though he added he would “love to be a part” of the revival if it were to materialize.
While long-suffering Deadwood fans might be reluctant to get their hopes too far up, HBO doubled down on their promise Wednesday afternoon with a tweet:
BRB, having a fuckin' drink. #Deadwood pic.twitter.com/1v4ok6BUv0
— HBO (@HBO) July 25, 2018
Additional reporting by Alan Sepinwall
