Honorary Oscar recipient Donald Sutherland has joined the cast of executive producer Taylor Sheridan’s upcoming Western series about real-life frontier hero Bass Reeves, which is undergoing some changes.
The drama, by showrunner Chad Feehan, is getting a name change from Bass Reeves to Lawmen: Bass Reeves, and the project will now be an anthology series. Reeves will still be the focus of season one, but subsequent seasons will center on different iconic lawmen who impacted history.
The Hunger Games and Dirty Dozen actor will play Judge Isaac Parker, “an imposing and commanding judge in the Fort Smith Courthouse with a complicated legacy.”
The first season of Lawmen stars Emmy nominee David Oyelowo as Reeves, the first Black deputy U.S. marshal west of the Mississippi River. He’s described as “the greatest frontier hero in American history [who] worked in the post-Reconstruction era as a federal peace officer in the Indian Territory, capturing over 3,000 of the most dangerous criminals without ever being wounded.”
The cast also includes regulars Lauren E. Banks, Forrest Goodluck, Barry Pepper and Demi Singleton, and in recurring roles, Dennis Quaid, Joaquina Kalukango, Lonnie Chavis, Rob Morgan, Ryan O’Nan, Grantham Coleman and Justin Hurtt-Dunkley. Shea Whigham and Garrett Hedlund are set to guest star.
Lawmen is set to join Sheridan’s sprawling slate of dramas that include Paramount Network flagship Yellowstone, it’s Paramount+ spinoffs 1883 and 1923, along with Paramount+’s Tulsa King, Mayor of Kingstown and upcoming dramas Lioness and Land Man.
Lawmen is currently filming in Texas.
