The subject of Horizon: An American Saga has become a bit of a maze at this point. Kevin Costner’s ambitious vision of a sprawling Western epic was supposed to have released its first two chapters at this point, and now we can’t be certain when or if we’ll see Part Two debut on the 2025 movie schedule.
While there’s promise in the fact that the next installment has set its U.S. festival premiere date, I have one major question pertaining to what we know about Horizon: Part Two - when do the rest of us get to see it?
Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2’s Next Stop Is The Santa Barbara Film Festival
As reported by THR, Horizon: An American Saga will continue its journey with a special double feature event. Courtesy of the Santa Barbara Film Festival, the first picture will be shown in the afternoon, followed by the evening’s U.S. premiere of the second installment, on February 7th.
After both films have screened, the new documentary Beyond The Horizon will be shown, with a Q&A featuring director Mark Gillard and Horizon mastermind Kevin Costner closing out the night. That event should be particularly interesting, as Horizon: Chapter 2’s Venice Film Festival premiere left critics feeling that their feelings towards the story hadn’t changed drastically.
Hopefully the Santa Barbara Film Festival crowd is kinder to this movie, just as streaming audiences welcomed Horizon: Chapter 1 with open arms. That sort of result would be vindicating for people who actually enjoyed Kevin Costner’s return to directing, and it might help finally sort out just what’s going on with the remaining three chapters.
The Crazy Journey Of Horizon: An American Saga So Far
Kevin Costner’s vision for Horizon: An American Saga evolved into four epic chapters over the course of decades of development. So when the would-be epic was introduced to audiences, the first two chapters were set to respectively debut on June 28th and August 16, 2024. Not even a month after Horizon: Chapter 1’s unfavorably light opening weekend, Horizon: Chapter 2 lost its release date, with the fates of the remaining two chapters in question.
Though the first film was rushed to streaming sooner than expected, I still think it was a wise idea. Yellowstone audiences who were waiting for streaming got to dig in and finally join the rest of us who believed in the picture from day one.
While that does go against how my Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 review heralds the film as a truly theatrical experience, it's nice to have more fans to talk with. Which will definitely come in handy when parsing out this property's crazy ride so far.
Setting the next chapter up for a U.S. festival premiere does seem to test the waters for something bigger. I truly hope that no matter the result we’re given some sort of update on Horizon’s theatrical future in the near future, as we've been left hanging for too long. Now that the origin story has hit with its home release, it’s time to keep up that momentum and get the next piece of the puzzle into place.
As for me, I’m just going to keep crossing my fingers for either an update on Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2’s release date, or a personal invitation from Warner Bros. to enjoy its day-long celebration at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. Anyone who’s interested in mounting up for this journey can stream Horizon: Chapter 1, which is currently available through access to either a Netflix or Max subscription.
