By Jeff Pfeiffer
“There’s a lot of things that define Mike McLusky,” says Mayor of Kingstown star/executive producer Jeremy Renner of his character in the series, which begins streaming Sunday, Nov. 14, on Paramount+. “And it all starts with the family. It will always start with the family.”
The McLusky family is the focus of this 10-episode drama from Yellowstone co-creator Taylor Sheridan. The clan are power brokers in Kingstown, Michigan, where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry. Tackling themes of systemic racism, corruption and inequality, the series provides a stark look at the McLuskys’ attempt to bring order and justice to a town that has neither.
Along with Renner (who will also be seen reprising his big-screen Avengers role of Clint Barton in the Disney+ streaming series Hawkeye beginning Nov. 24), Mayor of Kingstown costars Kyle Chandler, Dianne Wiest and series cocreator Hugh Dillon, who also stars in Sheridan’s Yellowstone. And Yellowstone will serve as a launching pad for this series; Paramount Network will simulcast the Kingstown series premiere on Nov. 14 following a new episode of the former series.
Renner says that he believes Mayor of Kingstown‘s thematic approach “will widen it to be not just a prison drama, or this or that. It really expands itself into a much more poetic and emotional context of the family and sacrifices.
“It’s a beautiful world that’s set up. … I said ‘yes’ to this project without reading one word of script, just because I believe in Taylor so much, his writing so much. I really love the strength of this family. I love the strength of this character. I love the strength of really all the characters. And it all starts with the limited, bleak surroundings that they are surrounded in. That’s what we all share, the good guys and bad guys and the ugly of it all. We all share a similar sort of backdrop and we are, you know, I don’t want to say ‘victims,’ but, ultimately, products of our environment.”
