Key Takeaways
- Billy Bob Thornton will host and executive-produce Billy Bob Thornton Presents: The Mayflower, a three-part Fox Nation docudrama premiering November 23.
- The series explores the Pilgrims’ 1620 voyage, their fragile alliance with the Wampanoag, and the violence that followed English expansion, with input from historians at Plimoth Patuxet Museums and author Nathaniel Philbrick.
- Thornton is also filming Season 3 of Landman, though Paramount+ has not announced a premiere date.
Billy Bob Thornton is trading the Texas oil fields for colonial America, and his next project tackles a chapter of American history far more complicated than the Thanksgiving story taught in elementary school.
The Landman star will host Billy Bob Thornton Presents: The Mayflower, a three-part historical docudrama premiering November 23 on Fox Nation. The series will examine the Pilgrims' 1620 Atlantic crossing, their relationship with the Wampanoag people, and the violent conflicts that followed English settlement.
According to Deadline, the production will explore the “complex” history surrounding the Mayflower voyage and the First Thanksgiving, including the “fragile” alliance between the settlers and the Wampanoag and the “devastating” conflict that eventually followed.
And there's plenty of history beyond the familiar Thanksgiving dinner.
When the Mayflower arrived in 1620, the land wasn't an untouched wilderness waiting for English settlers. Indigenous communities had inhabited the region for thousands of years. The Pilgrims established Plymouth on the former site of Patuxet, a Wampanoag village devastated by an epidemic linked to earlier European contact.
European encounters had already brought disease, violence, and enslavement to Native communities. Tisquantum, also known as Squanto, was kidnapped by English sailors years before the Mayflower arrived and taken overseas. He later helped the Plymouth colonists survive.
The Wampanoag and English settlers established a mutual-defense agreement in 1621, but the relationship deteriorated as colonial expansion intensified. By 1675, tensions erupted into King Philip's War, a devastating conflict that killed thousands and resulted in the displacement and enslavement of Indigenous people.
It remains unclear whether Thornton’s documentary will examine those consequences in depth. Fox Nation has confirmed that the series addresses the Wampanoag alliance and subsequent conflict, but hasn't detailed how extensively it will explore Indigenous perspectives, land dispossession, or enslavement.
The production consulted historians from Plimoth Patuxet Museums, where portions of the series were filmed, along with Nathaniel Philbrick, whose book Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Lauren Petterson, president of Fox Nation, said Thornton was selected for his ability to connect audiences with historical material.
“Billy Bob Thornton is a captivating storyteller with a unique ability to bring history to life,” Petterson said. “The Mayflower offers a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on one of the most familiar chapters in American history, giving viewers a richer understanding of the people, conflicts and events that shaped our nation’s beginnings.”
Thornton will also serve as an executive producer alongside Jordan Rosenblum, Geyer Kosinski, Tom Forman, David Metzler, and showrunner John Ealer.
His character, Tommy Norris, ended Season 2 by launching CTT Oil Exploration and Cattle after Cami Miller (Demi Moore) fired him from M-Tex. The new company is financed by cartel boss Gallino (Andy Garcia), setting up another complicated chapter for Sheridan's oil-industry drama.
Paramount+ hasn't announced a premiere date for Season 3.
