In the years since its cancellation, rumors of a Deadwood movie have swirled around in the ether like dust settling after a gunfight. Even though HBO announced last year that the film was officially happening and underway, it’s been hard to believe it to be true — until now.
Fifteen years after the series first premiered, HBO offered up some tangible proof by releasing the first teaser for the series. Considered to be one of the greatest TV shows ever made, Deadwood is set in the growing town of Deadwood, South Dakota during the 1870s, with real-life characters such as Al Swearengen, Seth Bullock, and Calamity Jane (portrayed by Ian McShane, Timothy Olyphant, and Robin Weigert in the series) serving as some of the series’ main characters.
The original series ran for three seasons for a total of 36 episodes, and the movie is expected to pick up, as per the time that’s passed, roughly a decade after the events of the series, in 1889. The trailer hints at the toll that the passage of time has taken on the town’s residents, though Swearengen and Bullock don’t seem to have changed too much in attitude. A hale-looking Sol Star (John Hawkes) and Alma Ellsworth (Molly Parker) are also briefly seen in the teaser, as are Joanie Stubbs (Kim Dickens), Trixie (Paula Malcolmson), and a riled-up Calamity Jane (Weigert).
The characters are “reunited after a decade to celebrate South Dakota’s statehood,” according to HBO. “Former rivalries are reignited, alliances are tested and old wounds reopened as all are left to navigate the inevitable changes that modernity and time have wrought.”
Written by Milch and helmed by original Deadwood director Daniel Minahan, the movie is set to air on HBO on May 31.
