‘Walker Independence’ Star Matt Barr Previews Hoyt & Calian’s Latest Team-Up
Preview
The Texas town of Independence may just be starting out, but this new 1800s-set Walker prequel, Walker Independence, already has its own Butch and Sundance in bad-boy thief Hoyt Rawlins (Matt Barr) and stoic Apache scout Calian (Justin Johnson Cortez).
“They actually make a pretty damn good team,” notes Barr of the unlikely and often at-odds duo who have been helping widowed Abby Walker (Katherine McNamara) catch her husband’s killer. They prove it again in the latest episode, on another Wild West adventure.
(Credit: Richard Foreman, Jr. /The CW)
In the nearby Angel Springs, outlaws keep attacking the whiskey shipments. The residents recruit Hoyt — who had posed as a preacher and swindled the innocent townsfolk out of money in the past — to help. “In order to beat the bandits, they find themselves the best bandit in town,” quips Barr, adding that the charismatic rascal was, ironically, kind of missed. “The stories Hoyt was telling moved these people. They long for his sermons.”
When his heroic plan goes sideways, Hoyt gets stranded in the desert. Good ol’ Calian comes to his rescue, and soon the cowboy and the strapping outsider are racing back into action.
“Justin and I have a great scene where Hoyt has to ride on the back of Calian’s horse,” Barr teases. “In one take, I run and grab Justin’s arm, flip up onto the back of his horse and we ride off together in a gunfight where I’m firing bullets and he’s firing arrows. We were like two 8-year-olds living their dreams.”
Walker Independence, Thursdays, 9/8c, The CW
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