Barry Keoghan to star in Billy the Kid movie

Last Updated on February 23, 2023

Deadline reports that Barry Keoghan, who recently scored an Oscar nomination for The Banshees of Inisherin, is set to star in a new movie about the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid.

Bart Layton, who directed Barry Keoghan in American Animals, is set to helm the Billy the Kid movie, which Element Pictures and RAW will produce with Film4. “We’ve seen many versions of Billy the Kid on screen before,” Keoghan said in a statement to Deadline. “My interest was in trying to tell a version that breaks from the facade of that cool, calm, and collected gunslinger Billy the Kid that we’re all used to seeing. I wanted to humanize him in a way.” Element Pictures producer Ed Guiney added, “This isn’t just a passion project for Barry. This approach is something new, and it’s a version of the tale we hope the world will want to see.“

Born Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid was orphaned at 15 years old when his mother died and his stepfather abandoned him. Just a year later, he was arrested for robbery for the first time, and by the time he was 18, he was wanted for murder. At 21 years old, Billy the Kid was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett. The project is said to lean into Billy the Kid’s complicated childhood and Irish ancestry, which Keoghan identifies with as he also lost his mother at a young age and ended up in the foster system.

“I wanted to step outside of the legend that was built up by the papers and tackle the pressure he must have felt from those early days,” Keoghan said. “He was running his whole life. I felt related to Billy in the sense of him being a mummy’s boy, but obviously, I took a different path, turning my circumstances into something positive rather than rebelling against them. Nevertheless, there’s a soul and a vulnerability to Billy that I think it’s important to bring, to understand him as a real person rather than the myth that he has become.” Barry Keoghan has grown to become one of my favourite young actors, and I can see him doing amazing things with a role like Billy the Kid.

Barry Keoghan had a hell of a year; not only did he receive an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Banshees of Inisherin, but he also appeared as the Joker in Matt Reeves’ The Batman.