Billy Bob Thornton Has Good News for ‘Landman’ Fans Worried About Tommy’s Fate in Season 3
Taylor Sheridan has built a reputation on unpredictability, and few shows on television embody that creative restlessness quite like ‘Landman’. The Paramount+ neo-Western drama follows Tommy Norris in the cutthroat world of West Texas oil fields, where roughnecks and wildcat billionaires collide in a boom reshaping the economy and beyond. Across two seasons, the show has proven itself willing to upend everything viewers thought they understood about it.
One of the biggest shocks in the series so far was the sudden death of Monty Miller, played by Jon Hamm, who died following a series of devastating strokes in the Season 1 finale. In a January 2025 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Hamm explained that his character’s exit was always planned, as his role had been a one-season commitment from the start. The death established a precedent that no star, however prominent, is untouchable in Sheridan’s world.
That precedent is exactly what has been feeding fan anxiety heading into the third season. The Season 2 finale saw Tommy Norris fired as president of M-Tex by company owner Cami Miller, played by Demi Moore, leaving him at a crossroads and forcing him to chart a new path in the oil business.
Speaking at the Newport Beach TV Fest on June 6, Thornton addressed the swirling speculation directly, telling Us Weekly that creator Taylor Sheridan is “going to let me hang around,” hinting that Tommy is not headed for the exit anytime soon.
The reassurance comes as ‘Landman’ rides some of the strongest momentum of its run. The Season 2 finale drew a record-breaking 15.8 million viewers within two days of its release. Paramount confirmed Season 3 before Season 2 had even finished airing, with the full cast including Thornton, Demi Moore, Sam Elliott, and Ali Larter all expected to return, and filming set to begin in May.
Not all of the cast is quite as settled about what lies ahead. Ali Larter, who plays Angela Norris, admitted she has no idea what Sheridan is planning, saying she really cannot assume or try to guess what he will imagine for Season 3, while noting that the cast’s deep knowledge of each other’s dynamics provides a reliable foundation to build from.
Andy Garcia, who plays Gallino, echoed that trust in Sheridan’s storytelling, praising the writing as layered and emotionally specific, with an insight into relationships that he described as a privilege to work with.
This is not the first time Thornton has been forced to push back against chatter about his future on the show. After the Season 2 finale sparked a wave of online speculation about his possible exit, he dismissed the claims as “AI-generated crap,” telling USA Today that the rumors had nothing to do with reality.
At the Newport Beach event, where he received the TV Performance of the Year Award, Thornton also took the opportunity to advocate once again for Sheridan’s long-overdue industry recognition, noting that “he writes great stuff” and has created “quite an empire.”
Season 3 is set to begin filming in North Texas later this summer, with a planned November premiere window keeping the show on its annual release schedule. Tommy Norris survived cartel kidnappings, corporate betrayal, and being shown the door at M-Tex, and now he enters Season 3 building something of his own. Whether that hard-won momentum makes him the show’s strongest protagonist yet or simply the most satisfying character to eventually break is the question ‘Landman’ fans won’t stop debating — so what is your read on Tommy’s odds of surviving Sheridan’s pen?
