Interview: Tom Blyth on ‘Billy the Kid’
Following a cliffhanger ending back in November 2023, which involved a massive shootout and the introduction of a new sheriff, Billy the Kid season 2 is returning for its second part, with 4 new episodes set to debut weekly starting from this Sunday, June 2. Last time we saw him, Billy (Tom Blyth) has found himself 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 (Linus Roache) 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.
“We are joining up just after where we left off, a couple of months after the events of the last episode following a short time jump,” says Blyth of the upcoming four episodes of the season. “The Regulators have bunkered down in order to plot their next move. Billy is now the de facto leader against his will, really, because after Tunstall is murdered in cold blood, there’s no one left ready to step into those shoes except for Billy. Everyone around him chooses him as their leader so it’s time for him to step up. However, he’s full of vengeance and a lust for revenge because the man who he looked up to and admired [John Tunstall] has been killed and he’s sick of losing people to corruption, so he’s ready to take the fight to them, essentially. When we see him the beginning of part 2, he is a stronger Billy than we’ve ever seen him before. He’s more capable. He’s ready to fight, but there’s also something wild in his eyes that we’ve not really seen before. This calm, cold killer instinct that he’s ready to let loose on some of his enemies.”
Part 2 of season 2 showcases a whole new side of Billy, says Blyth, one that’s a lot more grown up than the Billy we’ve come to know in season 1 – but a Billy that’s also wilder and more unhinged at the same time. “It’s funny that both can go hand in hand,” he points out when asked about the change in his character. “He can be more mature but also a little bit more feral at the same time. [Creator and writer] Michael Hurst and I have always talked about this evolution of Billy because this Billy has always been different. He’s not the Emilio Estevez type of Billy that we’ve seen before [Emilio Estevez played Billy the Kid in 1988 film Young Guns]. He’s more mature, he’s more poetic. He’s a bit more of a lover. He’s still a classic hero, but he’s become a little bit less tethered to his morality. He’s become a little bit less governed by his mother’s voice in his head that told him right from wrong. The further he gets from her, the further he gets from his childhood, the colder and more calculated he’s able to become, especially when it comes to fighting his enemies, which in season 2 he has to do a lot.”
Part 2 of season 2 also marks the return of a familiar figure in Billy the Kid’s iconography: Pat Garrett, played by Alex Roe. While viewers caught a glimpse of Pat in the first season, he joins the main cast in season 2 in an expanded role as the new sheriff. Tensions inevitably rise between Billy and Pat, as anyone familiar with Billy the Kid’s history will undoubtedly tell you, and Blyth says he had a great time working with Roe on-set to capture that dynamic. “In season 1, Alex and I haven’t really had a chance to do that much work together,” he elaborates. “A lot of our scenes have been separate. There were a few in season 1 and obviously season 2 part 1, we didn’t get to do any because he reappears at the end of part 1. But in part 2, we get to really go there. Some of my favorite scenes were with Alex where we go head-to-head, and Billy basically has to try and implore him to see the right side of history and to join his cause. I won’t give any spoilers but it doesn’t always go the way he wants it to, so he is faced with yet again another dilemma where the person across from him is an old friend and someone who has taught him along the way. It’s fun to watch that dynamic play out because Pat isn’t Jesse; he’s not hot-headed or a loose cannon. He’s calculated, he’s ambitious. He’s using Billy as a stepping stone to get to where he wants to be, which is a powerful player. So it’s a different tactic that Billy has to use with him.”
In addition to Billy the Kid, Blyth has a number of other projects in the works, including highly anticipated drama film Plainclothes, also starring Russell Tovey, and prison drama Wasteman opposite David Jonsson. His most popular role so far, however, is undoubtedly that of Coriolanus Snow in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the prequel to the beloved franchise starring Jennifer Lawrence. Met with both critical and commercial success upon its debut last year, rumors have been circulating about a potential sequel to the film. Would Blyth return to play Snow once again? “I could pretend to play coy but I think there’s still a lot left to discover about Snow,” says Blyth. “I’m really interested in seeing the relationship between him and his cousin Tigress, who is played by Hunter Schafer, play out. There’s so much to discover, and Hunter is so good in that role. It would be so exciting to see her do some more with it. So I’m hoping that if we get to come back, then that’s a big feature of it. But yeah, I’d be very interested. I love everyone involved. I think the creative team is just one of the best of all time, and to get everyone back together again will be really cool. The world that Suzanne [Collins, author of the books] builds, people really respond to for a reason. It’s really timely, but it also allows you to escape into it while also asking big questions about humanity. I’m always interested in that stuff.”
Billy the Kid season 2 debuts on June 2.