Deadwood: The Movie has arrived almost 13 years after HBO’s underappreciated show last aired. For all intents and purposes, the movie was a fitting end to David Milch’s series. Bringing together nearly the entire original cast the film sees what happens in the town of Deadwood 10 years after the season 3 finale.
Unfortunately cut short in it’s prime, the show is a precursor to all of the best shows on television right now like the equally Shakespearian Game of Thrones or in the ensemble cast of The Walking Dead. Below is a list of the main actors and actresses who return for the finale of one of the highest rated shows in the history of television.
Timothy Olyphant - Seth Bullock
Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) arrived in Deadwood not searching for gold, as many inhabitants planned to do, but instead opening a hardware store with his best friend and longtime business partner, Sol Star. Soon after, however, Bullock is talked into becoming the Sheriff of the town. An affair with Alma soon follows, interrupted by the sudden arrival of his wife and child.
Bullock being the honest man he is means he often came into conflict with the owner of The Gem brothel and bar, Al Swearengen (Ian McShane). But with the introduction of outside enemies (namely George Hearst) the two form a reluctant alliance. Ten years after the events of the series, when the movie picks up, Bullock is now a US Marshall. And he’s on a collision course with George Hearst.
Ian McShane - Al Swearengen
Perhaps the biggest name in the entire town, Al Swearengen (an award-winning performance by Ian McShane) imposed over Deadwood as the villain of the series. Responsible for many deaths (including Alma’s husband) Al showed his softer side with the girls who worked for him. Compared to the rival bar owner, Cy Tolliver, Al is almost a hero - Al protects those who work for him and, despite the foul language and occasional murder, does look after the people in the town (even if this sometimes puts him at odds with Sheriff Bullock).
His biggest foe comes with the introduction of George Hearst in season 2, with whom Al has a long-standing feud with. This continues into the movie, although ten years after the event of the series Al is not the man he used to be, slowly dying with liver disease.
Molly Parker - Alma Ellsworth
Alma (Molly Parker) Ellsworth began the show as Alma Garret, after moving to the town of Deadwood with her new husband Brom Garret. Brom’s dream of striking it rich in the gold rush is cut shirt when he falls foul of Al Swearengen and is murdered. Widowed, Alma is trapped alone in the town of Deadwood. An affair with the town Sherrif is cut short by the arrival of his wife and child. She later marries her friend Ellsworth and things get more depressing from there.
The third season sees Alma losing her baby to miscarriage, returning to drugs, and her marriage to Ellsworth falling apart. In the middle of this, Alma opens the first bank in Deadwood but is soon prayed on by the villainous George Hearst, who kills her husband and buys her bank. Unsurprisingly, this conflict and her love triangle with Bullock are referenced in Deadwood: The Movie.
Paula Malcomson – Trixie
Trixie (Paula Malcomson) is Al’s favorite girl at the Gem and despite being foul-mouthed (although who isn’t in Deadwood) shows herself to a genuinely caring and emphatic person. After befriending Alma and her daughter, she helps Alma battle her drug habit, while later Trixie nurses Sol Star back to health after he catches a bullet in one of Seth Bullock’s shootouts.
She’s tough too, seen when she shoots and wounds Hearst in season 3 in retaliation for the death of her friend, Ellsworth (Jim Beaver). The relationship between Trixie and Al was central to the show, expect this to continue in Deadwood: The Movie.
Dayton Callie - Charlie Utter
Charlie Utter (Dayton Callie) came into the camp alongside ‘Wild’ Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Despite his gruff appearance, like Jane, Utter is one of the kindest Deadwood inhabitants. He supports Jane throughout the series even when she spirals into an alcohol-fueled depression. Not long after settling in the town he sets up a mail freight business and, later, is recruited as one of Sheriff Bullock’s Deputies.
Utter is fearless too, taking on two of the shows biggest villains over the years, the murderous Francis Wolcott and later the evil millionaire trying to control Deadwood, George Hearst. Both Hearst and Utter return for Deadwood: The Movie, where their rivalry is explored further.
Kim Dickens - Joanie Stubbs
Joanie worked at Cy Tolliver’s Bella Union and was one of the closest people to him. The show saw her break away from him and open her own brothel called the Chez Amis. This was fraught with disaster however and didn’t last long. Season 3 was more hopeful though, as she reopened the site of the Chez Amis as Deadwood’s first schoolhouse with herself as the teacher.
Her relationship with Jane flourished also and all seemed well. When the Deadwood: The Movie begins, Joanie is the owner and proprietor of the Bella Union, taking over from the late Cy Tolliver whose actor Powers Boothe sadly passed away in 2017.
Brad Dourif - Doc Cochran
Brad Dourif’s Doc Cochran, a veteran of the American Civil War, is the only doctor in the Deadwood camp and possibly the only true neutral party. His willingness to treat anyone who requires, including both Al’s prostitutes as well as his rival Cy Tolliver’s, means he’s a valuable asset to both of them. In the final season, the Doc became ill with what was strongly hinted as being tuberculosis.
Swearengen, however, refuses to let him wallow in it and convinces him to keep up his doctor role. How the film will address this is unknown, as 10 years later when the film is set, Doc should have succumbed to his illness.
John Hawkes - Sol Star
Sheriff Bullock’s long-suffering best friend and partner at the hardware store, Sol Star, is one of the more kindhearted people in the town of Deadwood. Season 2 of Deadwood saw him trying to open a bank and season 3 saw him running for Mayor of the town.
As the series progressed, so did Sol’s relationship with Trixie (Paula Malcomson) Al’s favorite girl in The Gem. In the intervening 10 years between the series’ end and the beginning of the movie, Sol remained with Trixie and the movie picks up as he once again partners up with Bullock in Deadwood.
William Sanderson - E.B. Farnum
E.B. Farnum is one of the few characters in the show who could be called comic relief. The proprietor of Grand Central Hotel and Deadwood’s mayor, he is under the thumb of Al Swearengen, although he harbors delusions of potential grandeur for himself.
A lot of the humor comes from the fact that he is despised and ridiculed by almost everyone in the camp with the exception of his one and only friend Richardson. Although, the end of Season 3 saw at odds with even Richardson. Sanderson is back in Deadwood: The Movie but unfortunately, Richardson won’t return alongside him as his actor, Ralph Richeson, died in 2015.
Robin Weigert - Calamity Jane
Of the many characters in Deadwood that were based on real people, Calamity Jane is probably the real person you’re most aware of (who’s still alive the show at least, Keith Carradine’s Wild Bill Hickock probably has her beat in terms of being most recognizable). Jane ended Deadwood’s original run back in 2006 with her violent life about to be turned around.
The obscenities still remain but Jane was no longer the filthy drunk she once was. Instead, she focused on helping Doc Cochran to provide medical care to the camp’s inhabitants (including during a particularly nasty outbreak of smallpox). Jane even had a budding romance with Joanie Stubbs (Kim Dickens), something the movie surely explores.
