American Primeval is one of the hottest shows on Netflix at the moment, and for good reason.
Westerns – thanks to shows like Yellowstone – have come back in a huge way. And what’s more: American Primeval tackles a fascinating subject, which is America’s only indigenous religion: Mormonism and it’s (literal) war for legitimacy.
American Primeval
American Primeval stars Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin, Kim Coates, Shea Whigham, Saura Lightfoot-Leon, and Shawnee Pourier. It is helmed by director and executive producer Pete Berg, writer and executive producer Mark L. Smith, and executive producer Eric Newman.
Berg was inspired to create American Primeval after coming across a story about the Utah War back in 2020.
What many, if not most, viewers will discover is that the time and place were extraordinarily violent, and “war” is not an exaggeration!
“I read an article on something called the Mountain Meadows Massacre,” Berg told Netflix. “[It] was something that interested me, and I started doing a lot of research on it.”
Berg then reached out to Smith, who wrote the 2015 movie The Revenant, asking him to help flesh out the idea. While working on The Revenant, Smith had done research on the pioneer Jim Bridger, who is featured as a young boy in the Leonardo DiCaprio movie.
“I learned a lot about his character,” Smith explained. “I knew I wanted to explore it more, and this gave me the opportunity.”
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American Primeval Set 50 Years After The Revanant
Smith decided to set American Primeval fifty years after the events of The Revenant. The Netflix show takes place at Fort Bridger. There, Bridger finds himself in the middle of warring factions that include Native Americans, Mormons, and the US government.
At the time, Brigham Young was the then leader of the Mormon church with his own army, known as the Nauvoo Legion.
“For this type of story, it was very important that we stayed authentic,” Smith said. “Even for all the Brigham Young sermons and speeches, a lot of his dialogue I took directly from text — real sermons that he had given — and used his exact words.”
Berg chimed back in to say that in American Primeval, there are no heroes and no villains. Instead, the show is just about people trying to survive – on all sides of the conflict.
“The Shoshone and the Paiute tribes are being squeezed from their lands by both sides, so they feel like they’re getting ready to die,” Berg continued. “The miners and the trappers at Fort Bridger are all seeing their lives extinguished by larger trapper companies who are coming in and squeezing them out. Everybody is anxious from the get-go and everyone is truly fighting to stay alive.”
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What Viewers Can Take Away From American Primeval
Executive producer Newman spoke out to reveal what he hopes viewers take away from American Primeval.
“I think human triumph, the reinforcement of the good that people are capable of, is very important to me as it is to Pete,” he stated. “The other part of what matters to me is the importance of an anti-nostalgic, truthful look at our history.”
“I was a big Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States fan because it was the first time I was confronted with what I believed to be the truth,” Newman concluded. “That these rose-colored glasses in which we view the past, from the first Thanksgiving onward, is a lie. It’s a lie meant to make us feel good about this really rugged, brutal path that we’ve taken.”
If you haven’t seen American Primeval yet, be sure to check it out on Netflix. You won’t be disappointed if you do!
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