Irish actor Pierce Brosnan is best known for his role as James Bond in four Bond movies in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Still, some folks remember him best for his role as Remington Steele on the original Remington Steele. NBC's romantic detective series introduced American audiences to Brosnan, and the five seasons would give him the exposure he needed to launch a successful film career. Brosnan is now set to return to the small screen for a leading role in the ongoing series AMC's The Son. It will be the first time in three decades that he's been back on TV. Pierce Brosnan had this to say about why he's returning to television:
I've been looking for something like this for the last four or five years. I really had a yen to go back to TV. I was watching all these great shows appear on the horizon year after year.
For many years, performers tended to either be film actors or TV actors. Viewers just didn't often see big name movie stars spending time on the small screen for anything other than guest appearances. In recent years, however, actors who gained the majority of their fame and fortune on the big screen are migrating to television. Pierce Brosnan has evidently had the itch to return to television for a while now, and AMC's The Son is exactly what he's been hoping for ever since. He shared why he signed on for The Son during an appearance at the recent TCA press tour (via THR), and it sounds like he had a stroke of luck that AMC was looking for a lead on the new show.
The AMC series was originally set to be headlined by Sam Neill of Peaky Blinders (and of course Jurassic Park), but Neill left the project for personal reasons. Pierce Brosnan was offered the starring role after Neill's departure. The opening apparently came at the perfect time for Brosnan in his career, and he didn't hold back when it came to signing on with the series. He is currently contracted for three seasons of The Son. Given that the first season hasn't yet premiered, we can't say if the new show will draw the ratings to earn a renewal for Season 2. Still, Pierce Brosnan's three-season commitment at least means that we could have him around in the long run if The Son is a success.
The Son will be based on the Philipp Meyer novel of the same name and follow the exploits of Eli McCullough and his ruthless quest for power in Texas during the 1800s. His actions result in repercussions that affect the McCullough family for generations. The novel covers 150 years of McCullough family drama. Pierce Brosnan will play Eli for at least the first ten episodes. There's no saying at this point how sustainable the series will be if it is working off of its limited source material.
You can catch the first episode of The Son when it hits the airwaves on Saturday, April 8 at 10 p.m. ET on AMC. Take a look at our midseason TV premiere schedule to see what you can watch in the meantime.
