Netflix’s New Western Star Has a Blunt Response for Anyone Tired of Bass Reeves
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Bass Reeves had the kind of life a Western writer would be thrilled to make up. He escaped slavery and went on to become one of the first Black deputy U.S. marshals, pursuing fugitives through the old West. In 2023, David Oyelowo played him in the Taylor Sheridan-produced Lawmen: Bass Reeves, giving the man an entire series to himself. Three years later, Reeves is back on TV, and you can tell how far this version is willing to go the second you see what he’s got where his arm used to be.
In Netflix’s Bass X Machina, from Yasuke creator LeSean Thomas, Reeves is a bounty hunter with a mechanical arm in a West full of outlaws and automatons. Brian Tyree Henry voices Reeves and executive produces the series, which also stars Tati Gabrielle as a young engineer and Janelle Monáe as Reeves’ wife, Glory. It’s a strange enough premise that you’d think the first question anyone would ask Henry would be about the arm. One reaction that stuck with him was about something else entirely: why do another show about Bass Reeves at all?
In an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the series with Collider Set Stories, Henry recalled hearing the series described as “another narrative about Bass Reeves.” He had a question of his own. “How many narratives do you know? Because I don’t know of many.” Henry was even more direct a moment later. “Like, how dare you? Like, why not more Bass Reeves narratives, actually?”
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Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.
DunePaul AtreidesArrakis · Dune, 2021The hero who knows exactly what becoming one will cost.
You carry a weight most people would crumble under: the knowledge of what you're capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.Why This Is You
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- Dune: Part Three closes Denis Villeneuve's trilogy on December 18, 2026, adapting Dune Messiah.
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Star TrekCaptain KirkUSS Enterprise · Star Trek, 1966The captain who refuses to accept that a no-win scenario exists.
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Star WarsPrincess LeiaThe Rebellion · A New Hope, 1977The one who holds the line when the line is all that's left.
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AlienEllen RipleyThe Nostromo · Alien, 1979No speeches. Just the person still standing at the end.
You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone's hero. You just refuse to stop when it matters.Why This Is You
- You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
- Ripley's heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn't have a speech. She has a plan and the nerve to see it through.
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- When it counts, you don't flinch. That's everything.
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- FX renewed Noah Hawley's Alien: Earth for a second season, pushing the franchise onto the home planet.
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Mad MaxMax RockatanskyThe Wasteland · Mad Max, 1979Lost everything, kept going anyway.
You have been through fire that would break most people, and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.Why This Is You
- You don't ask for help, don't need validation, and don't wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
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- That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.
From The Collider File
- George Miller has a script for the next Mad Max, The Wasteland, but has said only that we will see whether it gets made.
- The 1979 original was shot for a few hundred thousand Australian dollars and became one of the most profitable films ever made.
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Brian Tyree Henry Wants More Bass Reeves Stories
Henry, who helped shape the series as an executive producer, had a personal reason for wanting to play Reeves. He told Collider, “I can only speak for me. I needed a hero. And I needed to feel heroic. I needed to feel it. I didn’t want to just participate in a way that was observant. I wanted to really get in and get my hands dirty.”
For Henry, that started with the pilot. “So within the first episode, there are six different Basses,” he said. The episode introduces Reeves as a bounty hunter, then follows him into rooms where he has to answer to white authorities and back home to his wife and children. Henry saw a connection between what Reeves does in those scenes and what he does in his own life. “Brian, when he leaves his front door, already has to figure out how many different Brian’s he has to be in society, period, too.” As for what he wanted to do with another Bass Reeves story, Henry put it plainly. “Let’s add some fantasy. Let’s add some punk rock to it. Let’s do something radical.”
Bass X Machina is streaming on Netflix. Watch Henry's full episode of Collider Set Stories above.
- Release Date
- 2026 - 2026-00-00
- Network
- Netflix
- Writers
- Chad Handley
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