The potential dangers are boundless in the limited series American Primeval, now streaming on Netflix Jan. 9.
Starring Taylor Kitsch (Painkiller, The Terminal List, Waco), the raw, adventurous exploration of the birth of the American West comes to life in the six-episode series. Here’s everything you need to know so far about the grueling journey West.
This is America, 1857. Up is down, pain is everywhere, and innocence and tranquility are losing the battle to hatred and fear. Peace is the shrinking minority, and very few possess grace — even fewer know compassion. There’s no safe haven in these wild lands, and only one goal matters: survival. American Primeval is a fictionalized dramatization and examination of the violent collision of culture, religion, and community as men and women fight and die for control of this world. The ensemble tells a story of the sacrifice all must pay when they choose to enter the lawless and brutal frontier.
“We are very appreciative that Netflix is trusting us to take a big swing with American Primeval,” director and executive producer Pete Berg (Friday Night Lights, Lone Survivor) told Netflix. “I’m looking forward to taking viewers into the most dynamic, intense, and heart-pounding survival tale humanly possible. We are going into the belly of the beast.”
American Primeval is Berg’s first project under his first-look deal with Netflix and is written by Mark L. Smith (The Midnight Sky, The Revenant, Overlord), with Eric Newman (Griselda, Narcos, The Watcher) serving as showrunner and executive producer. This also marks the second collaboration between Berg, Newman, and Kitsch, who worked together on the limited series Painkiller, which premiered on service in 2023.
The cast of American Primeval includes:
Right up top! See Kitsch, Gilpin, and more as they face a new frontier where the only goal is survival.
Yes, check out Kitsch, Gilpin, Whigham, and more in action above.
Out of 130 shooting days on American Primeval, only two(!) were filmed indoors. The rest were all shot on location in New Mexico, at places including Pueblo de Cochiti, Santa Clara Pueblo, Bonanza Creek Ranch, Parajito Mountain Ski Area, and Charles R Ranch.
In building out the scope of American Primeval, Berg was inspired by his love for the Robert Redford film Jeremiah Johnson. “When I saw it as a kid, I felt like I was in it,” the director says. “I was in the elements … just surviving, and I always wanted to do something like that.”
American Primeval was Berg, Newman, and Smith’s chance to go into the New Mexico mountains and create that kind of immersive experience for viewers. “If ever there was anything easier said than done, it’s this,” says Newman. “I believe all of us will forever be haunted in scripts by the words ‘it snows’ or ‘night, exterior night.’ ”
While filming, the actors were braving the kind of weather their characters would have faced in 1857, trudging through the snow, rain, thunder, and lightning, with rattlesnake cameos a daily occurrence on set. Kitsch wouldn’t have had it any other way. “When you’re on hour 15 of shooting, and you’re freezing, and you’re beyond exhausted, it all comes into play,” the actor said. “There’s nothing better than shooting on location. I loved it.”
Because the crew was up in the remote mountains, they all really learned how to survive together as a team. “We didn’t have Wi-Fi anywhere we were, we had no cell service,” says Berg. “So we were actually interacting with each other and bonding.”
If you recognized the dulcet tones of the folk anthem “This Land Is Your Land” in the closing moments of the American Primeval finale, then you would have correctly named that tune.
Berg enlisted the Texas band Explosions in the Sky, who he’d previously worked with on Friday Night Lights and Lone Survivor, to cover the famed Woody Guthrie song. “Explosions has a really unique ability to be both tragic and triumphant at the same time,” Berg tells Tudum. “And in doing so, they’re going to find levels of emotion and real propulsive drive simultaneously.”
While Berg and Newman knew the show would be violent, they still wanted viewers to be able to find emotional touchstones amidst the bleakness. They also appreciated how, at its core, the song isn’t a love letter to America, but a song of protest — Guthrie wrote the lyrics in response to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” “It’s a protest song about perceived injustice, hardship, and suffering that Woody [Guthrie] was seeing all throughout America,” says Berg. “And those things certainly felt appropriate to American Primeval.”
Additional songs featured in the series include “Backporch Pick” by Christian Marie Jean Bernard Seguret and Olivier Noel Andres, “Waltzing in the Moonlight” by George Doering and Steven Lindsey, and the Latter Day Saints hymn “Adam-ondi-Ahman” (“This Earth Was Once a Garden Place”), which you can hear Jacob (DeHaan) sing throughout the show.
American Primeval is available to stream on Netflix now.
