HBO has released the first teaser trailer for Deadwood: The Movie. David Milch’s original western TV series may not have been quite as popular as other HBO offerings during the 2000s (namely, The Sopranos), but it’s now considered one of the network’s all-time great creative achievements. Known for its profanity-laced yet poetic dialogue and dirt-soaked vision of the Old West, the Deadwood TV show also featured an all-star cast of character actors who’ve gone on to headline other hit series, including Ian McShane (American Gods) and Timothy Olyphant (Justified, Santa Clarita Diet).
While Deadwood was prematurely cancelled after three seasons in 2006, there’ve been reports about Milch working on a followup film (or, at different times, two-part movie conclusion) in the decade since then. Many fans had understandably given up hope of a continuation ever happening before the stars finally aligned last year and the Deadwood movie went into production at long last. And in case you still didn’t believe that the movie was real, it now has a teaser trailer to prove it.
To be fair, HBO did release the Deadwood movie’s first-look images back in December, and even dropped a few seconds of footage last month (as part of a preview video for its larger 2019 slate). That said, the film now has a proper trailer, along with an official premiere date of Friday, May 31, 2019. Take a look, below.
The Deadwood movie will pick up a decade after the show’s conclusion, as the series’ characters reunite in Deadwood to commemorate South Dakota’s new statehood (which was established in 1889). However, judging by the trailer, the characters’ dynamics haven’t changed too much in the years since we last saw them. Seth Bullock (Olyphant), for example, might be a U.S. Marshal now, but he’s still going “straight” at everything, much to his old frenemy and Deadwood saloon owner Al Swearengen’s (McShane) frustration. Deadwood itself seems as savage as ever too, what with people getting either shot or hung whichever way one turns here. It’s little wonder that Calamity Jane (Robin Weigert) is still her trigger-happy self in the trailer either, lest one wonder how she’s managed to avoid a premature death after all this time.
On a different note: it’s good to see Sol Star (John Hawkes), Alma Garret (Molly Parker), Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie), E.B. Farnum (William Sanderson), and Trixie (Paula Malcomson) back in action here and doing as well as can be expected, for people who spent years living in Deadwood. In an interview with TVLine, Malcolmson even described Milch’s Deadwood movie script as “a big Valentine to Trixie and Al”, which is great to hear, considering how fascinating and complicated (yet, ultimately, tender) their relationship with one another was on the original series. Less welcome, of course, is the return of Deadwood season 3 antagonist George Hearst (Gerald McRaney), who will almost undoubtedly be a source of conflict in the film.
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Source: HBO, TVLine
