Tom Blyth plays the legendary outlaw in the series created by Michael Hirst.
First, the good news: Billy the Kid, the vividly detailed and dramatically compelling TV Western starring Tom Blyth as the legendary outlaw, returns Sunday for Season 2 on MGM+ (the streaming service formerly known as Epix). The bad news: Only four episodes have been completed so far, so there will be a midseason hiatus that will last until — yes, you guessed it — the SAG strike ends, and production can resume.
But don’t let that keep you from enjoying the impressive action and enthralling drama — and the unexpectedly affecting romance — in those first four episodes. To quote the official MGM+ plot synopsis:
“The epic romantic adventure inspired by the life of America’s most infamous outlaw continues in Season 2, as Billy and his allies square off against his oldest friend Jesse Evans and the corrupt powers of the Santa Fe Ring. When shots are fired, the conflict erupts into the bloody Lincoln County War. Amidst the fighting, Billy will struggle to hang onto his soul — and to the love of his life.”
Here is an exclusive clip from Billy the Kid featuring Tom Blyth as Billy and Nuria Vega as his sweetheart Dulcinea Del Tobosco.
We recently spoke with series creator and showrunner Michael Hirst and executive producer Donald De Line about Season 2 of Billy the Kid. Here are some highlights from our conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.
Cowboys & Indians: After previewing the first four Season 2 episodes, we’d say the series seems darker and edgier than Season One. Was that always your intent?
Michael Hirst: Yeah, because the show was building towards the Lincoln County Wars. But unlike a lot of other Westerns in the past, when you’d go straight for the jugular, and you’d have shootouts and you'd have violence — before we got there, and before everyone started killing each other, I wanted people to know who Billy was. I wanted them to know the context in which how he grew up, and about his Irish background and his parents, and the fact that he always tried to look after the underdog, and his feelings towards the Mexicans and so on.
So when the shooting begins and we get to Lincoln, I wanted the audience to — well, you didn’t necessarily have to love Billy, but you had to be engaged with him, and interested in what he was doing. Because when you do get there, of course, and the shit hits the fan and he has to take a leadership role, it’s very dark in many senses. And this was a time when human life seemed pretty valueless. And it’s quite extraordinary for us to even imagine that. So it’s bound to be darker, because a lot of people are being killed for things that sometimes you think are quite senseless. But that’s what happened.
C&I: Was the start of production for Season 2 in any way delayed because of COVID?
Donald De Line: No, it wasn’t. Season One was a lot more complicated, because we were still quite deep in the middle of the pandemic. And when we went into Canada, I flew in from Los Angeles, and I was put into quarantine at the airport for two weeks in a hotel room, which was not supposed to happen. But in that time of the pandemic, as the number of cases rose, and ebbed and flowed, the government would make decisions in an afternoon. And by the time my flight landed, things had changed, because cases had risen and they changed the orders. So we all quarantined, the folks that came in from outside Canada — our director as well, who came in from England. And when we did start shooting, we were tested three times a week on the set. And we had all kinds of very strict protocols and masking and distance from actors.
This year, because the pandemic eased up and the numbers were much better, we had less stringent protocols, so it made it easier. Now, I don’t know what will happen if we see the numbers are rising again when we get back to shooting. God willing, that’ll be soon if SAG makes a deal with the AMPTP. But we’ll see what happens, and where the numbers are. Things are very fluid in that regard.
C&I: Was the WGA strike any sort of impediment for you?
De Line: No. Thank God we were so lucky, because Michael — because he’s Michael and he’s one in a million — he had written all of our scripts for Season 2 [before the WGA strike began]. So even with the writers out, we were able to shoot, because the writing was done. But the minute the actors went out, we folded up our tents and came home. So we’re sitting here on the edge of our seat waiting to get back and finish the last four episodes.
C&I: Not to spill any beans, but the final episode you’ve completed so far ends on quite a cliffhanger.
De Line: Honestly, weren’t we lucky? Literally, that’s the way Michael constructed it. It was extraordinary. It was almost as if it was designed that way. But it wasn't, was it, Michael?
Hirst: No, it wasn’t. But the decision to show these four episodes was I think a good one, rather than wait for the entire season to be ready. I don't want people to wait another six months, or a year, to see the second season. They need to see that we’re traveling somewhere, that we are going — well, as you said, it’s darker, more dangerous, more edgy. And also, we stepped up, I think, for Season 2. It's full of energy. It's brilliantly shot. It's very dangerous. And I think Michael Wright, the head of MGM+, made this decision that he wanted people to see this material and enjoy it. And because it does actually end on a cliffhanger — that’s no bad thing. But I think having seen these four episodes, people would want to come back anyway.
C&I: Also, you have a situation now where your Billy, actor Tom Blyth, is about to have a much higher profile because he’s starring in the forthcoming Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.
De Line: It is really exciting, because Billy the Kid was Tom’s first big break and his first major role. He was only about a year out of Julliard when we started. And the fact that he’s now, quote-unquote, being discovered on the big screen as well, and coming out in a huge movie, is so exciting for him. And it’s great for all of us.
C&I: Again, I don’t want to spill any beans, but people who have already read a lot about Billy the Kid, or who have seen movies like Young Guns, know that Billy will lose a father figure this season, rancher John Tunstall, and it’ll be a traumatic event for him.
Hirst: Billy did, in reality, do what I show him doing on screen. He went to the funeral parlor where [Tunstall’s] body was in the coffin or stretched on a table, and he said basically, “I’m going to kill everyone who was involved in this killing.” Even though that meant his essentially reverting to his previous outlaw state. But he made that decision. The impact of Tunstall’s death was huge on Billy, whose own father, of course, had just jumped off of life, just left him and left his mother to struggle with two young kids. And Billy saw all this and felt all this. With Tunstall, he felt that at last he had a father figure who trusted him, and wanted to help him go straight. Tunstall wanted to give Billy everything that he wanted for himself. But then he was shot by some incredibly nasty people.
C&I: What research material did you find most helpful as you were writing Billy the Kid?
Hirst: The books that I like are by people who actually knew, personally, the person they’re telling the story about. And I discovered an old book by someone called George Coe, and George Coe was one of the Regulators who rode with Billy. He knew Billy, he could remember things that Billy had said. And what he tells me about Billy’s character, I tend to believe. There are lots of people who speculate. There are lots of people who think he was a pathological killer or whatever. But George Coe knew him. And so, although it’s a very short book and George Coe is not a writer, his record of Billy is authentic.
C&I: It may be premature to ask this, since you haven’t yet finished with Season 2, but can we hope for a Season 3?
De Line: We sure hope so. That’s the plan. Michael’s got plenty of stories left to tell about Billy.