Returning to an ongoing television series for the first since 1982’s Remington Steele, Pierce Brosnan will be the lead in the upcoming AMC drama The Son, according to Deadline. Although Sam Neill was originally cast in the role, the Peaky Blinders star left the project for personal reasons. (However, back in the ’80s Neill was considered for the role of James Bond along with Brosnan, so maybe the two are more interchangeable than we thought.)
Based on the book by Philipp Meyer, The Son tracks the bloody rise and fall of one Texas family, paralleling America’s birth as a superpower. Brosnan will play Eli, the charismatic patriarch of the McCullough family who as a child was kidnapped by Comanches and as an adult applies their brutal worldview to his business dealings. Since he was born on the day Texas became an independent Republic, he carries the nickname “First Son of Texas.” Sure, it might seem a little weird that two Irish-born actors have been cast in a role that will likely require a ridiculous Southern accent, but Walton Goggins can’t do everything.