American Primeval is an American Western miniseries created and written by Mark L. Smith and directed by Peter Berg. Starring Taylor Kitsch and Betty Gilpin, the series is set in 1857 during the Utah War. It was released on January 9, 2025, on Netflix.
Set in 1857 during the Utah War, the series dramatizes the fight to gain control of the American West and the violent clash between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and cultures in the Utah Territory, centering on the events surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre. While set amid actual historical events, the series is largely fictional.
The six-part series was written by Mark L. Smith and directed by Peter Berg. Berg, via Film 44, and Eric Newman, via Grand Electric, are executive producers. It was commissioned by Netflix in December 2022. Smith is also an executive producer on the series.
Berg has said he was inspired to create the series after reading about the Utah War and the Mountain Meadows Massacre and started researching it. The series incorporates real events, such as the massacre depicted in the pilot, along with the stories of actual people who lived during the 1857 Utah War. Real-life characters such as Jim Bridger, a pioneer caught between warring factions; Brigham Young, the leader of the LDS Church who commanded his army known as the Nauvoo Legion; and Wild Bill Hickman, a lawman and a member of this militia, were incorporated. Berg and Smith met with authors of books about the Massacre and visited the massacre site to try to gain as comprehensive an understanding as possible of how that event happened. Julie O'Keefe served as the show's Indigenous consultant.
Taylor Kitsch was confirmed in a lead role in late 2022. In January 2023, Dane DeHaan, Jai Courtney, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, Kyle Davis, Nick Hargrove, Derek Hinkey, Saura Lightfoot-Leon, Preston Mota, Shawnee Pourier and Joe Tippett joined the cast.
Filming took place in New Mexico from February 2023, with filming interrupted by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Kitsch suffered a broken foot during the production. Filming ran for 130 days of which only two days were on indoor sets. The New Mexico locations used included the small towns of Cochiti Pueblo and Santa Clara Pueblo, sound stages in Santa Fe, and Pajarito Ski Mountain, as well as the Bonanza Creek Ranch in northern New Mexico and the Charles R Ranch near Santa Fe. The set builders used only tools available in the 1800s to construct its version of Fort Bridger.
Explosions in the Sky, the post-rock band that previously worked with Berg on the Friday Night Lights film (2005) and Lone Survivor (2013), composed the series music. Netflix Music has released the series' soundtrack.
The miniseries premiered on Netflix on January 9, 2025.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, American Primeval has a critic approval rating of 72% based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Handsomely shot and thoroughly grim, American Primeval drives home its point about a nation's bone-deep savagery to persuasive, and sometimes deadening, effect". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 59 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) rates the show at 8.0/10 based on a weighted average of over 67,000 votes.
Barbara Jones Brown and Darren Parry of the Mormon Stories Podcast both examined the show's depiction of the UtahâÂÂWar era, the Mountainâ¯Meadows Massacre, and the representation of NativeâÂÂAmerican tribes. They highlighted that the series mixes real events with dramatic invention, and that Brighamâ¯Young's role is overstated, stating:....Highly fictionalized â the show "examines key events ⦠through a fictional lens" and takes liberties with personalities and motives. In a Netflix Tudum Behind the Scenes piece, it was acknowledged that Mentions that the production consulted "Mormon consultants" and other experts, yet acknowledges the series is a work of historical fiction rather than a documentary".
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released a statement condemning the show for being "dangerously misleading", and said "[as] to the Mountain Meadows Massacre, which the series inaccurately portrays as reflective of a whole faith group, the Church has long acknowledged and condemned this horrific tragedy. It has also taken significant steps to uncover and share the full truth of what happened and promote healing". The statement also denounced the portrayal of Brigham Young as "egregiously mischaracterized", and called for people to be peacemakers.
According to data from Showlabs, American Primeval ranked fourth on Netflix in the United States during the week of 6âÂÂ12 January 2025.