Ian McShane says HBO is “quite keen” to make the Deadwood movie

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Ever since Deadwood was cancelled over a decade ago, there's been talk of some sort of continuation or conclusion to the series. However, once the sets were dismantled and the cast moved on to other projects, the likelihood of Deadwood being resurrected grew rather slim. Then, in 2015, rumours sprung that series creator David Milch was having "very preliminary conversations" with HBO about resurrecting the series in the form of a movie. A little too early to break out the peaches, but HBO's programming president at the time, Michael Lombardo, later confirmed the news when he announced that he had given Milch the green-light to move ahead.

Several months ago, Ian McShane, who played Al Swearengen on the series, revealed that David Milch's "two-hour movie script has been delivered to HBO," before adding that "if they don’t deliver [a finished product], blame them." Whether the project moves ahead is in HBO's hands right now, but McShane told Variety that they seem "quite keen" to deliver.

There are signs that HBO are quite keen to make it. They’ve got the script. It’s when they’ll make an offer and when we can fit it in. We probably won’t start “American Gods” until probably the end of the year or early next year, so there’s a window when we can do “Deadwood,” but they need to get everybody together. I mean all the characters that David [Milch] wants to put in the show. I’m probably going to have breakfast with him later this week. But no, they’re keen to do it, and I’m sure it would seem not only artistically a perfect time to do it but also commercially because there’s always been a revised interest in “Deadwood.” It went off the air far too soon for all the reasons you say, but that’s a long time ago. It seems like a two hour film would be a nice thing for all the people that want to see it and all of us who were deprived of the gig too early.

You hear that, HBO?! You've got the window, let's get this done. Ian McShane added that he'd "love to see Al [Swearengen] one more time." This is not a man you'd want to disappoint, HBO. I'm not a man you'd want to disappoint either, but for less scary reasons; I'd probably just cry awkwardly until you greenlit the damn thing. Whatever works. Let's keep our fingers crossed that HBO is able to get everyone together, but the late Powers Boothe will certainly be missed.

Ian McShane is currently starring as Mr. Wednesday on American Gods, which will air its season finale, "Come to Jesus", on June 18th on Starz.