Tom Brittney & J.K. Simmons to Star in MGM+ Series 'The Westies'

It was March of 2024, not long after the attempt at relevance with Belgravia Season 2, that MGM+ was revealed to be working on a Peaky Blinders-style series, with Narcos’ creator Chris Brancato stepping up to spearhead the project. Never mind that Belgravia: The Next Generation was as dead on arrival as its initial first season, or that MGM+ continues to be a streaming service no one knows exists or watches. Amazon Studios wished for MGM+ to have a gangland series, and as is the way of studios with deep pockets, someone was always going to be happy to oblige.

That project is now titled The Westies, named after the real-life, infamous Irish gang that controlled most of the Hell's Kitchen area, extending up to midtown, in the 1970s and 1980s. Unlike Peaky Blinders, which takes the titular gang (which folded after WWI, due to the war killing off an entire generation) and fictionalizes a what-if scenario where the gang remained strong through the interwar period, The Westies will be based in the true story of the gang's activities, with a focus on the peak years of the organization's rule over New York City, when it took over the construction of the Javits Center.

Up until now, the production has only announced American actors as cast, which made sense. It's set in NYC, and although it's technically a period piece, the 1980s were a time when first- and second-generation Americans ran the gang, not Irish-born immigrants, and an ensemble led by J.K. Simmons (Oz, among his many credits) seemed to indicate that's how the series would handle things.