Tim McGraw is ready to get back to work after several surgeries sidelined him over the past few years. Variety reports that the actor/country star has been cast in Southern Bastards, a drama based on the 2014 graphic novel series of the same name.
Joining Tim is Erin Kellyman (28 Days Later: The Bone Temple, Eleanor the Great) and the previously announced Kevin Bacon. Tim will play a leading role as a football coach in the South—a scenario not too foreign for the Louisiana-born hitmaker, as Southerners tend to eat and breathe the sport.
The Southern Bastards logline outlines the series in brief detail, revealing that it “follows a tenacious military vet (Erin Kellyman) into Craw County, Alabama, in search of her estranged father (Kevin Bacon). What she finds is a murderous hornet’s nest of organized crime run by the winningest high school football coach in the South (Tim McGraw).”
That high school football coach is “Coach Boss,” and he’s a legend in Craw County, but he’s not a good guy by any stretch. He’s “the leader of his community and a complex figure who embodies the dark side of Southern football culture. He’s the head of an organized crime ring that extends beyond his small town in Alabama, and he’s not afraid to protect his empire by any means necessary” (via Deadline).
The show pilot, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, is currently in the works for release at Hulu. This is great news for a singer who also really loves to act. Last January, Tim had to pull out of a booked role in a Netflix show about bull-riding to undergo back surgery, and he also had both knees replaced. He previously appeared in the Yellowstone prequel 1883 alongside his real-life wife Faith Hill, and in more than one football-infused role in The Blind Side (2009) and Friday Night Lights (2004).
2026 will be a banner year for Tim as he jumps back into the spotlight: He’s launching his massive Pawn Shop Guitar Tour in July, performing at stadiums and pavilions around the United States. This fall, he’ll be formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame as the Modern Era artist pick of 2026—a long-sought honor he calls “almost impossible for me — it is impossible for me, not almost — to believe.”
