Kevin Costner’s ‘Horizon’ Is Netflix’s New Year’s Surprise

Thanks to Netflix, you can now wrap 2024 with the first installment of Kevin Costner‘s Western epic.

Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1 snuck onto the streamer on Monday (Dec. 30). While the film scored a lengthy standing ovation following its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, the three-hour-long feature was also critically panned, with some questioning why the first of a planned four films was not made into a TV series instead.

Chapter 1, which is also streaming on Max, currently has a meagre 51% on the Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile Chapter 2‘s original theatrical release date was delayed. As noted by What’s on Netflix, the second part already debuted at the Venice Film Festival.

Starring Costner, Sienna Miller, Abbey Lee, Sam Worthington, Ella Hunt, and Jamie Campbell Bower, the film is set in 1859 and tackles the trials and conflict surrounding Western settlement over a 15-year period, both pre- and post-Civil War.

Speaking to GQ for a May cover story, Costner shared that he invested “about $38 million in the film” at the time.

Costner also acknowledged his passion project during a social media announcement in June, during which he broke the news that he would be exiting Yellowstone ahead of Season 5, Part 2.

“I just want to reach out and let you know that after this long year and a half of working on Horizon and doing all the things that’s required and thinking about Yellowstone, that beloved series that I love, that I know you love,” he noted in the video. “I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue, Season 5B or into the future.”

Check out the trailer for Horizon above.