Young Guns 3 was at last in development.

A few years on from his original Young Guns 3 reveal, Estevez has given an update on the project, announcing that the Western sequel will be shot in New Mexico, and that he expects to begin filming in the fall. The 62-year-old Estevez then joked about the irony of him starring in (and reportedly directing) a movie with “young” in the title (via Santa Fe New Mexican):

“Many of you may have already heard. We’re starting the ball rolling on Young Guns 3. I’ve heard all the jokes: Old Guns, Ancient Guns.”

What Estevez’s News Means For Young Guns 3

It Looks Like It’s Really Happening

News of a potential Young Guns three-quel began percolating back in 2021. Young Guns 3: Alias Billy the Kid was revealed as the prospective title, and Estevez was reported to be writing and directing. The Billy the Kid star talked to Collider at the time about why he was trying to bring the series back after over 30 years away:

I drive a lot and I spend a lot of time in the Midwest, and people will tell me, ‘We haven't seen you on screen for awhile. Come back! We'd love to see you in the movies again. … We'd love to see you play Billy the Kid.’ … The Kid is a fun character to play. There's a lot of speculation about what happened that night, in 1881 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. Did he die? Did he not? And so, there's a lot of mythical, historical and actually some factual things that we can examine, if we're serious about going back to that franchise, as well."

Returning Young Guns star Phillips put the brakes on sequel talk, however, when back in 2023 he told Entertainment Weekly some disappointing news about the film’s progress:

It's in limbo right now. It was chugging along there for a minute, but then I think they got into a rights situation… It's not dead, but it's not happening right now.

Not only has development on Young Guns 3 apparently fired up again, but the movie seems to be well on-track, after Estevez’s announcement of a start window and filming location, made before assembled industry professionals and state officials in Santa Fe. The rights issues referred to by Phillips must have been sorted out, allowing Estevez to resume shepherding his long-delayed sequel forward.

Our Take On Young Guns 3 Finally Getting Made

It’s Probably Way Too Late For A Young Guns Sequel

In his 2021 Collider interview about Young Guns 3, Estevez spoke of “speculation” concerning whether Billy the Kid really died in 1881 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico as history records. Indeed, the possibility of exploring theories about Billy’s “true” fate were set up by Young Guns 2, which was framed as a story recounted by an elderly man named “Brushy Bill” Roberts, who claimed to be Billy the Kid.

Estevez himself played Roberts in Young Guns 2, wearing old-age make-up, but he won’t need the make-up to play an old man in Young Guns 3. If the third film means to take place 30 years (or more) after the events of the second, it will be set in 1911 or later, which means leaving the true Wild West in the past. Estevez seems interested in further exploration of the Billy the Kid myth, and might feel optimistic about Young Guns 3’s prospects for box office glory, given the huge returns seen by Top Gun: Maverick.

Young Guns is no Top Gun, however, and it’s unlikely that many moviegoers share Estevez’s excitement over revisiting the Western franchise, which seemingly went out with a blaze of glory back in 1990, but surprisingly still has a few bullets left to fire with Young Guns 3. Westerns are a much tougher sell now than they were back in 1990, unfortunately, as Kevin Costner found out with his ill-fated Horizon project. Estevez hopes his own Western revival avoids such a dismal box-office fate.

Source: Santa Fe New Mexican