Billy the Kid returns to MGM+ with the continuation of the second season on Sunday, June 2nd, and viewers will see Tom Blyth as the titular character trying to exact justice along with the Regulators. A new sheriff is in town, and it’s creating a new obstacle for Billy.

Episode 5 premieres on Sunday, June 2, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with new episodes every Sunday.

“The walls are literally closing in,” Blyth tells Nerd Reactor about Billy’s path in Season 2 Part 2. “And the walls look a lot like Jesse Evans and the House and Pat Garrett, and these people who have returned to his life in Lincoln, who maybe he thought he’d left behind a little bit. And there are violent figures. There are people who think they know him. Maybe some of them underestimate him. But I think Season Two: Part Two, which we’re about to see, is really, really kind of finally becoming the man that he’s supposed to be, which is a leader, a gunslinger, someone who’s not afraid to wield his power.”

Tunstall was a rancher who brought in Billy to help him fight against his ruthless rivals, the House. With the House’s gang murdering Tunstall, it heavily affected Billy.

“And he’s someone who now has revenge in his heart because Tunstall’s killing kind of tipped him over the edge. In Part One of Season Two, we saw Tunstall gunned down in cold blood. And Billy kind of saw Tunstall as his last line of hope, and someone who could kind of show him the straight and narrow life. And then to see him gunned down, while they were moving some cattle, you know, it’s like, that was the last straw. It’s the straw that broke the camel’s back. I think we’re gonna see Billy now take the fight back to them instead of being on the defense.”

The Western genre has been popular throughout the decades with movies such as Django Unchained and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Rockstar Games had a huge hit with Red Dead Redemption, a Western video game series.

“Yeah, I mean, so I’m not a big gamer, but I played games as a teenager, as a kid,” Blyth said. “And so when I got this part, I always like watching Westerns, and my kind of thirst for Westerns was a bit insatiable at the beginning of season one. And it did become a habit to like, sometimes, wind down after a long day of filming by playing Red Dead Redemption. And I think the thing that was the most informative, and the thing that struck me the most was that game, you spent so much time just like walking between towns on horseback. And you start to recognize so much of that life. And that world would have been just like, the monotony of traveling along the desert, or along the mountain range, or through the forest.

“And you couldn’t go fast because your horse would get tired and you had to water the horse and you had to eat and cook food and hunt a deer or whatever it was and trade. And that is kind of in Billy as well. We see him at certain points when he’s on the run, run out of food and water, and have to take shelter and then get trapped. And then in Season Two: Part Two, we see that at a certain point, he’s on the run and gets cornered and we see him having to like, hunt for his food. I love those intricate details that you get when the writing is good, which Michael writes into the story when it gives it the detail and the layers that you see in Red Dead Redemption.”

About Billy the Kid

Michael Hirst (Vikings) is the creator and showrunner. The show is executive produced by Michael Hirst, Donald De Line, Darryl Frank, and Justin Falvey.

Synopsis: In Season 2 of Billy the Kid, Billy gets caught in the middle of the Lincoln County War, a murderous conflict driven by money, greed, and corruption. After enjoying a monopoly, Murphy’s Store is no longer the only player in town when Englishman John Tunstall moves to Lincoln and sets off a commercial rivalry. Law and order is no match for cowboy gangs and a secret society. Wild chases and shootouts abound. There are innumerable ambushes and killings. No one is safe. After a pivotal assassination, things get very ugly, leaving Billy the Kid with an uncertain fate. Will he make it out of the Lincoln County War alive?

The list of episodes and descriptions:

A Debt Collected – June 2, 2024 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

The del Toboscos family fail to repay their debt, leading to an ambush by the 7 Rivers Gang. Billy vows that he and the Regulators will take over Lincoln and clear out the thugs. But, there’s a new Sheriff.

The Plea – June 9, 2024 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

Billy and the Regulators turn McSween’s house into their HQ, and are supported by the Mexicans. A confrontation with the 7 Rivers Gang leads to a fusillade of bullets. Restoring peace seems futile.

The Blood-Soaked Bible – June 16, 2024 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

With Lincoln on lockdown, Murphy’s House celebrates what it regards as a victory over the Regulators. When a Regulators look-out shoots a soldier, the McSween house is set on fire. Many are killed.

An Invitation – June 23, 2024 at 9 p.m. ET/PT

Frustrated by Billy’s ability to evade capture, Thomas Catron devises a scheme to lure Billy back for his arrest. The Regulators attack the jail while Billy, aided by Dulcinea, escapes once again.

Featured image credit: David Brown.