HBO confirmed that it was finally making a Deadwood follow-up movie back in July, putting an end to 12 years of healthy skepticism about whether the premium cable network would ever really be able to wrangle all of the original cowpokes back together for more of David Milch’s cuss-filled Western. Of course, the thing about skepticism is that it doesn’t really go away until the last possible moment, and the last possible moment is still pretty far off for Deadwood. According to Deadline, production on the movie has officially begun, which should mean that we can stop assuming that it’ll all fall apart again, but honestly, it could all still fall apart again. Movies get shelved or outright canceled after going into production all the time, and there’s no telling what kind of unexpected issue could derail the Deadwood movie now. Just to be safe, we’re going to continue assuming that the Deadwood movie won’t happen right up until we see the end credits roll on the HBO premiere.
If it does happen, though, it’ll feature most of the cast of the original show, including Ian McShane, Timothy Olyphant, Molly Parker, Paula Malcomson, John Hawkes, Anna Gunn, Dayton Callie, Brad Dourif, Robin Weigert, William Sanderson, Kim Dickens, and Gerald McRaney. The story will be set 10 years after the end of the original show, with the gang reuniting to celebrate South Dakota becoming a state. (That’ll put it about a decade before Red Dead Redemption II, if you’re a fan of other cowboy-related media and were curious about that.)