Horizon: An American Saga Teaser Stakes its Claim in the West

Movies

He may be leaving Yellowstone behind, but Kevin Costner isn’t hanging up his cowboy hat just yet. Today, Warner Bros. released a teaser for Horizon: An American Saga, an upcoming Western film directed by, co-written by, produced by, and starring the acclaimed Hollywood icon. Horizon: An American Saga takes place before and after the Civil War to trace the “expansion of the American West.” Costner leads a sprawling cast that includes Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jenna Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Thomas Haden Church, and plenty more. The film will be released in two parts, with Chapter One hitting theaters on June 28, 2024, and Chapter Two on August 16, 2024. You can see the teaser below:

That really is a teaser, and I’d be perfectly happy if it’s the only sort of trailer we see for this movie. The image of Kevin Costner riding alone on the Western frontier before lifting his rifle and firing is sensational, a spot-on representation of classic Western iconography. Who’s he shooting at, and why? No idea, but I can’t wait to find out. The cast has some great actors (and Sam Worthington), a few of whom have worked with Costner in the past; he and Jeff Fahey were both in my favorite Western of all time, Silverado, Will Patton was the villain in The Postman, and Michael Rooker was part of the investigation in JFK. I’m very interested in seeing how this does at the box office; it looks great to me, but I don’t know if a big, long Western epic is going to draw much of a crowd in 2024. If it does, I wonder if this will be another death knell in the superhero genre, at least in terms of its dominance. The Western was once where the superhero film is now, and if people go back to them, it could be at least partly out of a yearning for a different time. And Kevin Costner is probably the best guy around whose name isn’t Clint Eastwood to bring it back. (I know Eastwood has aged considerably, even in just the last five years, but he’s still got the sparkle in his eyes.) Aside from Wyatt Earp, which I haven’t seen in forever and need to re-watch, he made the magnificent Open Range with Robert Duvall as his co-star. And, of course, there’s Dances with Wolves. If Horizon: An American Saga is successful, Costner has said he wants to make three sequels, one of which has already been greenlit. Wouldn’t that be nice?