Billy Bob Thornton to star in David E. Kelley’s new Amazon series, The Trial

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

After a great turn in the first season of FX's Fargo, Billy Bob Thornton is sticking with TV as Variety has reported that he's signed on to David E. Kelley's new series, The Trial. The series will make its home at Amazon but unlike Amazon's other shows, The Trial has received a straight-to-series order of ten episodes instead of Amazon's usual policy of making pilot episodes available for public voting and feedback to decide which shows will move forward.

Here's what Variety says The Trial is all about:

The series follows Billy McBride, played by Thornton, a once-respectable lawyer who was ousted from the high-profile firm he co-founded. Billy now spends his days getting drunk, with the occasional case tossed his way by his ex-wife, but Billy’s professional life is turned upside down when a young lawyer who has just been fired from his old firm brings him a wrongful death case that pits him against the head of his former firm.

Lawyer shows aren't usually my television genre of choice but when you have Billy Bob Thornton and drunk in the same sentence, I probably won't be able to resist. Billy Bob Thornton's role had originally been offered to Kevin Costner but he ended up passing on the project. David E. Kelley will co-write the pilot with Jonathan Shapiro and both will serve as executive producers on the series.

Will you be checking out The Trial?