Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers in Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1.

The Big Picture

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1
establishes multiple storylines in an American Western epic, focusing on settlers and pioneers in the post-Civil War era.
Kevin Costner’s passion project features a massive ensemble cast and explores the struggles of both settlers and Native Americans in the West.
Costner talked about several plot points that would be explored in future movies including the story of the Apache and also learning more about the mysterious Mr. Pickering.

The first of four movies that span over a 12-year period, Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1 establishes the multiple storylines in this American Western epic. Directed, co-written, and produced by Kevin Costner, the passion project features a massive ensemble cast that also casts Costner as one of the main protagonists alongside actors like Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Luke Wilson, Jena Malone and more. Set both before and also after the American Civil War, the films follow the stories of settlers and pioneers who expanded out west to start a new life in an unforgiving land. Gritty and brutal at times, the film doesn’t shy away from just how difficult life can be, not only for those looking to start over in the west, but also for the Native Americans who found their homes being invaded by violent outsiders.

In Chapter 1, Costner stars as Hayes, a travelling, stoic type who meets a woman named Marigold (Abbey Lee) in a small town and quickly gets tangled up with her. They end up on the bad side of the Sykes, a powerful family in the area, and are forced to go on the run with a child in tow. Although Hayes and Marigold strike up a brief romance, that quickly fades when Marigold abandons Hayes and the child by the end of the movie, leaving the man alone once again. We spoke with Costner about what he hoped to achieve with the Horizon series and what makes it stand out.

We also talked to him about the Apache storyline that begins in this first movie. Costner teased a bit of the later movies, where we get a glimpse of the man behind all of the Horizon fliers — Giovanni Ribisi as the mysterious Pickering — and looks forward at the series as a whole. Watch the video interview with Kevin Costner above, or read the full transcript of the interview below.

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 Chronicles a multi-faceted, 15-year span of pre-and post-Civil War expansion and settlement of the American west.Release Date June 28, 2024 Main Genre Western Writers Jon Baird

What Makes ‘Horizon’ Stand Out From the Other Western TV Shows?
COLLIDER: Kevin, obviously, you’ve done a lot of Western historical dramas. What makes Horizon different from the rest of the other stories that you’ve been in, and what makes the story worth telling?

KEVIN COSTNER: It really invests in the story, in women and their story in the West. It gets to all the things that we love about Westerns, the certain kinds of fights, the gunfights, the action, but it really leans on behavior, and it’s terribly emotional. That’s what I wanted it to be. I wanted to surprise people, which is what I really want when I go to the theater to begin with. I wanna be surprised and thrilled. I wanna be drawn in. So, every decision that was made with Horizon was about that.

Kevin Costner on the Native American Storyline in Movie 4

I really enjoyed the Apache storyline in this first film. How large of a part are they going to play in the remaining three films? I feel like we didn’t get enough of them, and I wanted more.

COSTNER: What happens is I tie every story up, so they’re a continuum. In [movie] four, they really dominate, and in [movie] three, they’re re-emerging. It’s a story of the town’s struggle, and for a large part, the Natives attacked and then they left alone. So, I try to keep it alive. I keep it alive through the character of Ralston [Amos Little]. I don’t purposely try to make everything balanced, I go where the story takes me. But the Native Americans certainly play a large role in this, and in [movie] four they dominate a lot of it.

Costner Teases Giovanni Ribisi’s Villainous Character in ‘Horizon’
Image via Prime Video

Can you tease a little bit about what we might expect from Giovanni Ribisi’s character? We see a final shot of him; he’s the guy who’s printing all these flyers, but never has a man looked more like a villain than him. Can you talk a little bit about his character?

COSTNER: He’s gonna dominate [movies] three and four and is a fabulous character in American cinema. When you see him come on, he’s not sinister, he’s a salesman. His desire is as big as anybody’s for the West to improve. It just destroyed the lives of Native American people. People have dreams, but they don’t realize they crushed other people’s dreams. The American Dream squashed all the indigenous people. It’s a fact. It annihilated them.

Related Is ‘Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1’ Streaming? Where To Watch Kevin Costner’s Western Epic The new Western passion project was self-financed by director and star Kevin Costner.

Will ‘Horizon’ Exist Beyond the Four Movies?

I feel like there’s a lot of potential for future stories, especially since you’ve set up this very large cast, and there are younger characters, characters who have children. I know this is very far off, but is that something that’s on your mind? Expanding this past this generation and this group of characters?

COSTNER: The second movie is harder than the first. It doesn’t get easier for the people. It’s all connected. It travels about 12 years, and everybody gets older. It’s just baby steps in the settling of the West. The West was a 300-year process. It happened in inches because the land was contested the way it should have been. It should have been contested. And so most of the people coming out to the West didn’t have the capability of surviving out there. It was very difficult.

Horizon: An American Saga is in theaters now.

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