Kevin Bacon Saddles Up to Lead Hulu’s Southern Bastards Drama Pilot from The Punisher: One Last Kill Director

Here’s something you probably didn’t have on your 2024 TV bingo card: Kevin Bacon, fresh off his usual circuit of oddball roles (remember him in X-Men: First Class, Super, and that surprisingly weird Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special?), is about to anchor a Hulu show based on one of my favorite under-the-radar comic book series. Yes, Southern Bastards—the Eisner-winning, fried-chicken-greasy, football-crime-family saga from Jason Aaron and Jason Latour—is finally getting a shot at live action. And honestly, I’ve been waiting for this for years.

What Even Is Southern Bastards?

If you missed the comic back in the day (2014-2018), here’s the gist: small-town Alabama, where high school football glories, fried food, and ruthless crime move hand-in-hand. The action picks up when a battle-hardened military vet comes back to Craw County to hunt down her estranged father. Instead, she finds out the place is basically run by a menacing football coach—you know, the kind who wins games and loses basic human decency.

Kevin Bacon steps in as Earl, Craw County’s own prodigal son. He’s the kid of legendary Sheriff Bert, who ruled the place back when iron fists were still in season. Earl’s not just tough, he’s tough-but-tired: a blue-collar Army vet, trying to fix his family and pull Craw County out of the gutter. Of course, reconnecting with his daughter in this hornet’s nest isn’t exactly a walk in the park.

Who’s Making This Thing?

Hulu’s handling the adaptation, and they’ve brought in Reinaldo Marcus Green for the pilot—the guy who directed The Punisher: One Last Kill. If you caught that one, you know he doesn’t shy away from hard-edged, violent material. I’m actually pretty confident he’ll do ‘Southern Bastards’ justice. (And yes, Jason Aaron and Jason Latour’s original series clocked in at four volumes and 21 issues—plenty of good story to mine.)

Quick Aside: Bacon’s Recent and Upcoming Projects

If you love watching Kevin Bacon pop up in unexpected places, rest assured he hasn’t slowed down. Here’s the rundown:

• Family Movie – Bacon is director and star of this comedy-horror, which also features his wife Kyra Sedgwick and his daughter Sosie Bacon (yes, a real family affair). The plot: a low-budget slasher shoot turns into an actual body count scenario, so the crew decides to hide the corpse to keep filming. John Carroll Lynch, Scoot McNairy, and Jackie Earl Haley round out the cast. It sounds part meta, part disaster, all Bacon.
• History’s Strange Fortunes with Kevin Bacon – This is a docuseries delving into bizarre financial tales from American history. Think: a lucky gold miner, a circus hypnotist turned con artist, and various improbable heists. Honestly, if anyone can narrate oddball economic stories and make them watchable, it’s Kevin Bacon.

Why I’m Actually Excited

I burned through every issue of Southern Bastards as they dropped, always thinking the dark, messy world of Craw County would fit TV perfectly. It’s got small-town secrets, creeping dread, and deeply flawed people—honestly, it should work great as a streaming drama if they get the tone right.

Jason Aaron and Jason Latour’s take on the South never goes for cheap stereotypes—the football, the fried food, the violence, it’s all just there, lived-in and ugly and sometimes even funny. Now we get to see if TV can pull it off. My advice: get ready for something sweat-soaked and mean, and keep an eye out for Bacon doing the kind of character work he’s always crushed.

'Bacon plays Earl, the son of the legendary Sheriff Bert, who ruled Craw County with an iron fist. Earl is a tough but humble blue-collar army veteran—eager to mend fences and reconnect with his daughter, and not afraid to stir the hornet's nest that is Craw County.'

All in, between Green and Bacon, this adaptation suddenly has some real heat behind it. How closely Hulu’s version will stick to the comic’s mix of slow-build tension, dark humor, and sudden violence remains to be seen—but hey, after all this time, I’m just glad someone is finally giving Southern Bastards a shot.