Whilst it’s now been well over four years since HBO’s supremely impressive, highly acclaimed, western drama Deadwood went off the air, and three years since we learned the show’s elaborate sets were to be dismantled, and that the two planned Deadwood TV movies wouldn’t be happening, series star Ian McShane (who will soon be seen playing Blackbeard in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) recently stated that Deadwood may not be quite as dead as its fans feared.
Despite many on-again-off-again rumours, fans have generally stuck with HBO’s official line that Deadwood is gone (something series star Garret Dillahunt confirmed to us in an interview last year), but it appears as though some of the series’ most influential people may be trying to bring it back; as series creator David Milch (who’s currently working on HBO’s Luck, and soon to start work on a movie adaptation of PS3 game Heavy Rain) recently expressed “hope that we’re going to get to do a little more work in that area”, that he “doesn’t know the last word has been said on the subject”, and suggested he’d love to bring the curse-heavy western back in some form or another.
Even more recently Ian McShane; who played Deadwood’s smart and ruthless saloon owner Al Swearengen (by far the series’ most memorable character); said that as far as a comeback goes you “don’t say no”; as “you never know” what’s going to happen (going back on when he declared some years ago that “Deadwood is dead”); and that he has been talking to Milch about the possibility of a comeback, although “nothing has been spoken with HBO yet.”
So while it’s a nice idea, and has the potential to really take off once again (thanks to massive fan support, and the fact that every member of the cast seemed to genuinely enjoy being a part of the production), Deadwood’s return is still far from official, yet can’t be fully counted out; as two of it’s most influential backers are now behind the idea (with McShane stating how it was “cruelly taken off the air”, that it needs to comeback because there’s still “unfinished business”, and suggesting that Milch has some good ideas for the return, but unfortunately he “can’t give it away”).
There’s no denying that there would be masses of support for a Deadwood return (as whenever a major cast member attempts to promote another projected they end up being quizzed about the series), be it in the form of another series or the previously talked bout TV movies, but for now fans will once again have to content themselves with simply hoping a return is on the cards, and agreeing with McShane; who believes a Deadwood return would “be the best comeback ever.”
