‘Deadwood’ EP Details the Movie’s Time Jump, Cast & ‘Unfinished Business’

Deadwood - Keith Carradine and Timothy Olyphant
Preview
Sam Emerson/HBO

Fans of David Milch’s Wild West drama/Shakespearean tragedy Deadwood: Settle in for more curses and hearses.

The lauded series, abruptly canceled in 2006 after three seasons, returns in this long-rumored movie. Why the delay to reload? Says executive producer Carolyn Strauss, “Getting the right script, syncing schedules of actors and crew as well as hitting the right moment seemed impossible. And given that the principal theme of the movie is the toll of time, we needed to let time take its toll.”

The follow-up is set a decade later, in 1889. South Dakota has been admitted to the Union, but Deadwood — a place where rivals were routinely shot, hanged or thrown to the pigs — is still in its own state of chaos.

“The clothes are fancier, the buildings more permanent, but the mud and passions still bubble up,” Strauss reveals. Best of all, almost every cast member returns, from Ian McShane (outsize brothel owner Al Swearengen) to Timothy Olyphant (mostly decent sheriff Seth Bullock) to Robin Weigert (tough but tender Calamity Jane).

At stake: issues related to “statehood and power — but also unfinished business,” Strauss says. We’ll tip our Stetsons to that.

Deadwood, Returns Spring, HBO