“We knew it was going to be successful — we didn’t know it was going to be this successful,” Billy Bob Thornton admits of the reaction to his Paramount+ series Landman. The Taylor Sheridan-created show ranked among the top 10 original streaming series during the fourth quarter of 2024, debuting as Paramount+’s biggest premiere in two years, and continued to gain steam through its finale in January.
“It’s amazing, we’re so proud,” Thornton told The Hollywood Reporter at a Emmy FYC event for the show on Sunday of the show’s reception. “We love the people we work with and so we’re proud for everybody involved.”
The series — set in the world of the Texas oil business — was quickly renewed for a second season and began shooting in April, with Thornton noting they should be wrapped up in August. As for reading where season two is going, the star said, “I loved it. Taylor knows this show very well, he’s got a vision for it so it’s pretty easy. I didn’t expect to read it and go, ‘Wait a minute, hang on here.’ It was great.”
Season two will also see Sam Elliot join as a series regular — “It’s been awesome, I’ve known Sam since the ’80s so he and I go way back,” Thornton said — as well as a return for Andy Garcia‘s character, who shook up the season one finale. “He’ll be more of a part of it this year for sure,” Thornton confirmed of Garcia, adding, “Andy and I go way back too, first time working together though.”
Garcia was tight-lipped on what season two would have in store for him, joking only “I’ll be there” and that the new scripts are “Beautiful, just beautiful. The writing is always so strong.”
Co-stars Ali Larter, Demi Moore and Jacob Lofland were also in attendance at the L.A. event, with Lofland revealing that after the success of the show, “it’s a whole new life over the last eight months.” The actor, who plays Thornton’s son, also noted that as they film season two “we’re kind of slowing down a touch to keep from having heatstrokes” due to the summer heat in Texas and that reading the new episodes has been “absolutely amazing. Same as the first, you get Taylor’s scripts and it’s like picking up a book that you can’t put down.”
Moore returns in an elevated role for season two.
Michelle Randolph, meanwhile, who plays Thornton’s onscreen daughter, just landed a role on the big screen with Malibu, a horror thriller Tod Williams is directing for Screen Gems.
