Netflix has given a straight-to-series order to a new adaptation of Larry McMurtry's 1985 Western novel Lonesome Dove. Zoe Kazan and Jeb Stuart will write, executive produce and serve as co-showrunners.
The project comes from Teton Ridge Entertainment, which acquired the rights to the property and brought Kazan and Stuart aboard before the series landed at Netflix.
One last cattle drive for Gus and Call
The story follows retired Texas Rangers Augustus “Gus” McCrae and Woodrow Call as they leave the Rio Grande behind for one final cattle drive toward the wilderness of Montana.
It is an adventure on an enormous geographical scale, but McMurtry's story has always depended on smaller things too: friendship, longing, loyalty and two aging men confronting a future that does not necessarily have much room left for the lives they understand.
Netflix has not announced who will play Gus or Call. There is also no episode count, production date or release window yet.
Netflix is keeping the East of Eden team together
Lonesome Dove extends the streamer's relationship with Kazan and Stuart almost immediately. The pair also serve as co-showrunners on Netflix's East of Eden adaptation, starring Florence Pugh, Christopher Abbott and Mike Faist, which premieres October 1, 2026.
Moving directly from Steinbeck to McMurtry makes for an ambitious literary double bill. The genres are different, but both projects come with unusually strong cultural memories attached to earlier screen versions.
Kazan and Stuart said they are approaching Lonesome Dove with love and respect for the material. Netflix's Jinny Howe pointed specifically to their handling of character, place and emotional detail on East of Eden when explaining why the company wanted to continue working with them.
The 1989 miniseries is impossible to ignore
McMurtry's novel was previously adapted as a four-part CBS miniseries in 1989. Robert Duvall played Gus McCrae opposite Tommy Lee Jones as Woodrow Call, with a cast that also included Danny Glover, Diane Lane, Anjelica Huston and Chris Cooper.
That version became a major part of Lonesome Dove's screen legacy. Netflix's series therefore arrives less as an introduction to an untouched classic than as a fresh interpretation of a story audiences have already seen adapted very successfully.
The source novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and grew into a larger literary cycle through Streets of Laredo, Dead Man's Walk and Comanche Moon.
The McMurtry estate is involved
Executive producers include Teton Ridge Entertainment's Thomas Tull, Jillian Share and Jen Gorton, alongside Jon Jashni, Diana Ossana and Curtis McMurtry of the McMurtry Estate.
For now, that production team is the clearest picture Netflix has offered. Gus and Call have a new television home. Their faces, and the date when the cattle drive begins, are still waiting.
