Emilio Estevez Thinks There's Room For Five More Young Guns Sequels
In the era of "everything old is new again" that Hollywood has been going through for some time, why not "Young Guns 3"? That's what Emilio Estevez believes anyhow, as the actor is very much ready to reprise his role as Billy the Kid in a new film in the franchise more than 30 years after the release of "Young Guns 2." What's more, Estevez actually believes there's a lot of gas in the tank for this franchise — four or five movies worth.
Estevez recently spoke with Uproxx about the prospect of "Young Guns 3," which first surfaced as a real possibility a couple of years back. Not only did Estevez say he's "ready to go" but he said, seemingly in earnest, "I think, not only just one more film in the franchise, but I think you could do three, four, and five." What's holding these grand plans up? Legal red tape. Here's what he had to say about it:
"It all comes down to the legal minds that work out IP. Listen, I'm ready to go. We have a terrific draft and if we can figure out the copyrights on all of this, and if Morgan Creek can sort of untangle from some of the issues that they've got in terms of continuing the franchise, we're ready to go. So it's just a question of when. Of course, I'm not getting any younger, so I think we'll drop the 'young' from the title, which we've done. But I think that Westerns being revived certainly plays to our benefit."
So it wouldn't be "Young Guns" (maybe "Old Guns"?) but there's a script and this is clearly more than just an idea being kicked around. But what's the story? Estevez has ideas about that too.
Lots of stories to tell
Much of what Estevez is proposing here has to do with the fact that many theories exist that suggest William H. Bonney, aka Billy the Kid, survived well beyond his reported death in 1881. Of particular interest is a Texas man going by Brushy Bill Roberts who, in the late 1940s, began claiming he was Billy the Kid. Parts of "Young Guns 2" even played with this theory, with Estevez in heavy makeup to make him look the part. Speaking further in the interview, the actor explained where he feels the story could go.
"There's a new photo that surfaced. It's pretty strong evidence! There's a New York detective who is on the case, who's a facial recognition guy, and he looked at several, especially this new picture, and said, 'Without question, this is the same guy many years later and he is Brushy Bill...' And that, again, is just further evidence that there's a story there. It's almost like a 'Zelig' or 'Forrest Gump.' Brushy Bill Roberts, aka Billy the Kid, he fought alongside Pancho Villa in the Mexican Revolution. He was with Teddy Roosevelt at the Battle of San Juan Hill. Here's a guy that was born with the advent of the Gatling gun and died in 1950 during the Atomic Age. I mean, think about what he saw over the course of his lifetime!"
For what it's worth, Morgan Creek rebranded in 2017, and the studio planned reboots of several franchises, with "Young Guns" among them. While nothing has come of it officially, there seems to be interest on both sides. If the rights can be sorted out? This seems more than a little possible, and Estevez is clearly waiting for the call.