Netflix Is Betting on "Lonesome Dove" Before Its First McMurtry Show Has Even Aired

Netflix hasn't even released its first Larry McMurtry adaptation yet, and it's already commissioning a second.

The streamer has given a straight-to-series order to a new adaptation of Lonesome Dove, McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1985 Western novel, from co-showrunners Zoe Kazan and Jeb Stuart — the same duo behind Netflix's upcoming East of Eden limited series, which doesn't premiere until October 1. The new series will follow retired Texas Rangers Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call as they embark on one final, perilous cattle drive from the Rio Grande to the untamed wilderness of Montana.

The path to this greenlight took some time. Independent studio Teton Ridge Entertainment, which focuses on American West stories, announced back in February that it had acquired the rights to the Lonesome Dove literary franchise across film and television. The studio brought on Kazan and Stuart to write the adaptation and shopped the project in late April, landing at Netflix by early May in what's been described as a genuinely competitive bidding situation. The roughly four-month gap between that deal and Tuesday's formal confirmation, according to Deadline, came down to untangling a complex web of rights that needed to be secured before the greenlight could actually proceed.

Kazan and Stuart didn't hide their excitement about returning to McMurtry's work. "After our singular experience on 'East of Eden,' we are thrilled to be teaming with Netflix again, along with Teton Ridge Entertainment, to bring Larry McMurtry's western classic to life," the pair said in a joint statement. "We come to this material with love and respect, and can't wait to hit the trail with Gus and Call and the rest of these beloved characters. Yee-haw."

There's a real challenge built into revisiting this particular story, though. The original 1989 Lonesome Dove miniseries remains enormously beloved, with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones's performances still considered practically inseparable from McMurtry's characters for many longtime fans — a high bar for any new adaptation, nearly four decades later.

Diana Ossana, McMurtry's longtime creative partner and an executive producer on the new series, spoke to what she hopes the adaptation preserves. "'Lonesome Dove' has been part of my creative life for decades, an important part of Larry's and my partnership journey," she said, adding that she hopes to help "bring this newly imagined, extraordinary world of 'Lonesome Dove' to a contemporary generation while preserving the emotional truths that make all of Larry's work timeless."

Jinny Howe, Netflix's Head of Scripted Series for the U.S. and Canada, framed the streamer's confidence in Kazan and Stuart directly around their work on East of Eden. "After 'East of Eden,' we know exactly what they're capable of — the depth of character, the sweep of place, the emotional precision," Howe said. "This material deserves that level of care. In their hands, it's going to be something extraordinary."

The series' executive producer roster is substantial, including Thomas Tull, Jillian Share, and Jen Gorton of Teton Ridge Entertainment, alongside Jon Jashni and Curtis McMurtry of the McMurtry Estate. No cast or release timeline has been announced yet, with East of Eden's October 1 premiere likely serving as the more immediate marker of how audiences respond to Kazan and Stuart's approach to classic American literary adaptations before Lonesome Dove itself moves further into production.

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