Billy Bob Thornton Explains That Mystifying Landman Final Line

Spoilers ahead for the season finale of Landman.

The first season of Landman wrapped up with a satisfying conclusion—but an ominous final line from Tommy Norris (played by Billy Bob Thornton).

After surviving a brutal beating from the cartel, Tommy returns home. He walks outside to smoke, and sees a coyote. He tells the coyote, “You better run buddy. They kill coyotes around here.”

In a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Billy Bob Thornton spoke about the significance of that final line.

“The symbolism of the coyote to me, and I’ve talked to Taylor [Sheridan] about this quite a bit, there was more dialogue in both of the coyote scenes originally,” Thornton revealed.

“We talked it over and said, ‘You know what, I think these are essentially silent scenes because this is Tommy locking eyes with this wild coyote.’ I think Tommy looks at that coyote and at the end, it’s like, ‘Here they come. They are coming for me.’ Or, ‘Are they coming for me? Am I the coyote, am I looking myself in the eye? Am I this lone wolf out here, just running across these plains trying to keep from getting killed? Or is the coyote the cartel?’ I think it’s a very symbolic moment of Tommy trying to figure out who he is here. And I think he’s kind of staring himself, and possibly death, in the eye.”

While as of this writing Landman has yet to be renewed for a second season, it is promising. “Usually shows that are this successful, they’d do it again; so, I can only imagine that they would, but I don’t know for sure,” he said.

Billy Bob Thornton Breaks Silence on ‘Landman’ Season 2, Reveals Filming Start Date

The Landman actor, 69, told Entertainment Weekly that he is hopeful about shooting a second season of Taylor Sheridan’s high stakes oil drama — and even shared a glimpse into its potential filming schedule.

“I understand that if we’re going to do that, season 2, that it’s going to be sometime around February, March, somewhere in there,” Thornton explained in an August interview about the series for EW’s Fall TV Preview. “I mean, we’ll see. It just depends on how the chips may fall, you never know in this business. But if we do it, I think [we’re] going to try to do it around that.”

At time of publication, Landman has yet to be officially greenlit for a second season by Paramount+. Still, Thornton noted at the time that he’d be game to put on Tommy’s cowboy boots once again if given the chance.

“I sure hope so, because I had a fun time on this one and it’d be a nice one to do,” he said about a potential season 2. “I mean, you’d kind of like to at least do a couple of something to get people used to it.”