“Twin Territories,” a new series following the first Black Deputy U.S. Marshal, Bass Reeves, is in development at Amazon, TheWrap has confirmed. The series hails from Morgan Freeman and Lori McCreary’s production company Revelations Entertainment with a script penned by “Hand of God” creator Ben Watkins and “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” writer Josef Sawyer.
Based on the novel “Black, Red and Deadly” by scholar Art T. Burton, who specializes in academia around Black Americans in the Wild West, the show will follow the preeminent lawman colloquially known as the Lone Ranger as he and the assertive Irishman Chauncey Lee contend with the unruly area, aiming to do right by Indigenous communities. “Twin Territories” will also explore how Reeves, who was formerly enslaved, became instrumental to Oklahoma’s statehood.
Executive producers are Malcolm Spellman (who created “TFATWS), Scott Frank, James Pickens Jr., Scott Frank, Leonard Chang and Watkins.
There is currently another Bass Reeves-centered series in development at Paramount+, “1883: Bass Reeves,” a six-part limited series and part of “Yellowstone’s” prequel series. David Oyelowo (who was in “Watchmen,” which also featured the legendary marshal) will be portraying Reeves in the show, to be directed by Taylor Sheridan. Oyelowo told TheWrap in February that the project was “long-gestating” and that he is “a couple of months away from being on a set in Arkansas and [me] being the man himself.”
Deadline first reported the news.
