Production is set to begin in October for a 2019 air date.
Ever since Deadwood ended its three-season run on HBO in 2006 without neatly tying up all of its dangling plot threads, fans have yearned for a satisfying sense of closure, with either a miniseries or movie spin-off as a resolution for the down-and-dirty western series. Over the past decade, however, we’ve had nothing more than a steady succession of tantalizing rumors, false starts, and dashed expectations.
But now it looks like the long wait is over.
According to the showbiz trade paper Variety, HBO programming president Casey Bloys has officially greenlit a Deadwood movie, with production slated to begin in October for a tentative spring 2019 air date.
But wait, there’s more: While announcing the good news Wednesday at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, Bloys confirmed that most of the original series’ stars will be reprising their roles in the movie. Well, at least those stars whose characters weren’t killed during the original series.
“It’s been a logistics nightmare getting all the cast members’ schedules together,” Bloys said, “but we are there.”
During the 36 episodes that ran from 2003 to 2006 on HBO, Deadwood featured Timothy Olyphant (who went on to arguably greater success with Justified), Ian McShane (now on view in the Starz series American Gods), John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone, Small Town Crime), Molly Parker (Dexter, House of Cards), and Titus Welliver (Amazon Prime’s Bosch), among others.
Watch this space for further developments. Meanwhile, if you're not yet familiar with the Deadwood phenomenon, this masterful 30-minute documentary written by Matt Zoller Seitz will bring you up to speed.