The Yellowstone star will enter another realm of the Taylor Sheridan Universe.
While waiting for production to begin on the “final cycle” of Yellowstone episodes, C&I reader favorite Mo Brings Plenty has signed on for a role in another Taylor Sheridan-produced series. In Lawmen: Bass Reeves, the upcoming Paramount+ Western drama, he will play Minco Dodge, a Choctaw Native American who is friends with David Oyelowo’s title character, the iconic slave-turned-lawman who was the first Black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi River.
Also joining the cast: Dale Dickey, the award-winning character actor noted for her work in such films as Winter’s Bone, Hell or High Water, Small Town Crime and, most recently, A Love Song, the highly regarded indie drama in which she starred opposite Wes Studi. According to a Paramount press release, Dickey will play Widow Dolliver, described as “an old woman who has seen it all, and who does not waste time suffering fools.”
Other new series regulars announced Tuesday include Tosin Morohunfola (Run the World) as Jackson “Jackrabbit” Cole, “a former Union soldier turned prisoner who rides along with Bass Reeves,” and Margot Bingham (The Walking Dead) as Sara Jumper, a black Seminole Native American to whom Bass will owe a debt of gratitude.
They will join an impressive lineup of co-stars that already includes Dennis Quaid, Donald Sutherland, and Barry Pepper.
Formerly known as 1883: Bass Reeves, then simply as Bass Reeves, Lawmen: Bass Reeves — now filming in Texas and tentatively scheduled for a fall premiere — has been reconceived as an anthology series that will focus on a different Wild West peacekeeper each season.
For Season One, David Oyelowo (Selma, Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway) will play Reeves, who worked in the post-Reconstruction era as a federal peace officer in the Indian Territory, capturing over 3,000 of the most dangerous criminals without ever being wounded. Many historians and other observers — including Bill O’Reilly, in his 2015 Legends and Lies TV series — have claimed Reeves likely was the real-life model for the fictional Lone Ranger. Indeed, it has been widely noted that Reeves often gave out silver coins (not bullets) as his version of a calling card. His steed of choice was a white stallion. And very much like The Lone Ranger, Reeves was known to be a straight shooter and a fair fighter. Although he killed at least 14 men during gun battles, he steadfastly maintained he never shot a man when it was not necessary for him to do so to save his own life.