Lawmen: Bass Reeves is the latest addition to the ever-flourishing Sheridan-verse, where gunslingers and frontier tales take centre stage in the super-producer ‘s panoply of Paramount+ shows.
The new miniseries stars David Oyelowo as the eponymous Reeves, who breaks from the fictional Sheridan tradition to give a true-life historical figure of the Old West his moment in the spotlight. As is shown in the opening episodes of the show, which are now available to stream, Reeves escaped slavery and went on to become the first Black US deputy marshal west of the Mississippi River.
While Lawmen was initially touted as a new piece in the Yellowstone puzzle when it was announced in 2021, and may indeed have been envisioned as a spin-off to the hit prequel 1883, it has arrived as a standalone series.
The show is set in a similar time period to 1883 but bears no concrete link to the Yellowstone world beyond Sheridan’s involvement and a certain cast member. That is the one and only Mo Brings Plenty, who fans will recogniser as Mo from Yellowstone, but plays the new character Minco Dodge in Lawmen, which hopefully won’t confuse fans of the original show.
The eight-part series joins Sheridan’s Paramount shows including 1923, Special Ops: Lioness, Tulsa King, and Mayor of Kingstown, alongside the indomitable Yellowstone.
While Lawmen is slated as a standalone show, it is intended to become an anthology series with upcoming seasons. Paramount has confirmed that future iterations will follow “other iconic lawmen and outlaws who have impacted history”.
The real Reeves is something of a Western legend, as he is thought to be the origin of the masked character the Lone Ranger, after making approximately 3,000 arrests during his career.
Oyelowo has spoken of his hopes for the show to portray a different dimension to the Black experience in the US on TV.
He told Entertainment Weekly: “My goal, my hope, my ambition for this has always been to have an opportunity to contextualise the contribution of Black people to this country in a way that colours outside of the lines of what we have normally seen.
“The extraordinary story of Bass Reeves exemplifies just that.”
Oyelowo has been trying to get the story of Reeves’ life onto screens for over eight years and said he has Sheridan to thank for achieving that goal. “He’s really an inspiration in terms of what’s possible when you have passion, when you have talent, and when you somehow have the energy that he has,” Oyelowo told Esquire. “So it’s been a really great ride.”