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Taylor Sheridan’s Greatest Western Series Is Getting a Sci-Fi Reinvention for Netflix

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Taylor Sheridan gained a reputation for bringing the Western back to TV, most notably through Yellowstone and its fleet of spinoffs. However, he did produce another Western that follows a real-life figure in Lawmen: Bass Reeves. Starring David Oyelowo in the title role, Lawmen: Bass Reeves chronicles Reeves’ career as a deputy U.S. Marshal who holds a staggering record of 3,000 arrests. It’s one of Sheridan’s more underrated projects, but worth a watch for Western fans and history buffs alike. Later this year, Netflix is bringing a wildly different take on Bass Reeves’s story to life with a new anime series.

The series, titled Bass X Machina, stars Brian Tyree Henry (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) as Reeves, and will also cover his career as a lawman. However, that’s where the similarities end, since Bass X Machina is taking a sci-fi approach to Reeves’ story​​​​​​, according to its official logline.

“In a lawless Steampunk West overrun by brutal outlaws, machines, and supernatural terrors, a father is forced to become judge, jury, and executioner — knowing that every act of justice meant to protect his family may ultimately cost him the very people he’s fighting to save.”

In addition to facing off against massive steam-powered robots and fighting on floating trains, Bass X Machina also features Reeves packing a cybernetic arm with a collection of guns built into it. Bass X Machina might be an unorthodox approach to such a legendary figure, but it definitely stands out from what Oyelowo and Sheridan brought to the table.

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A Legendary Animation Studio Is Bringing ‘Bass X Machina’ to Life

Based on the exclusive sneak peekNetflix shared with Collider, Bass X Machina is going to be a gorgeous-looking anime. Everything from Reeves’ movements to the mechanical monstrosities he fights immediately draws the eye, thanks to fluid motion and a unique design that keeps the Western aesthetic intact. Studio Mir handles the animation for Bass X Machina; if that name sounds familiar, it’s because this studio has produced some of the biggest hits in modern animation. Studio Mir rose to prominence with Avatar: The Last Airbender and has continued to work on other projects like X-Men ’97 and My Adventures with Superman. It’s also maintained a steady relationship with Netflix after animating Devil May Cry, which features the same over-the-top elements as Bass X Machina.

Bass X Machina also features the creative talents of LeSean Thomas, who developed the series and serves as its executive producer alongside Brian Tyree Henry. If Taylor Sheridan has become synonymous with bringing Westerns to television, then Thomas is synonymous with working on anime and anime-influenced products​​​​​​. His prior work includes The Legend of Korra and The Boondocks, and he also created original anime like Cannon Busters for Netflix. This pedigree means that Bass X Machina ​​​​​​will stand out among Netflix’s anime offerings.













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Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz
Which Taylor Sheridan
Show Do You Belong In?

Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
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Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.

🤠Yellowstone

🛢️Landman

👑Tulsa King

⚖️Mayor of Kingstown

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01

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Where does your power come from?
In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.




02

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Who do you put first, no matter what?
Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.




03

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Someone crosses a line. How do you respond?
Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.




04

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Where do you feel most in your element?
Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.




05

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How do you feel about operating in the grey?
Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.




06

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What are you actually fighting to hold onto?
Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.




07

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How do you lead?
Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.




08

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Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction?
Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.




09

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What has your position cost you?
Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.




10

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When it’s over, what do you want people to say?
Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.




Sheridan Has Spoken
You Belong In…
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The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.

🤠
Yellowstone

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🛢️
Landman

👑
Tulsa King

⚖️
Mayor of Kingstown

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You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.

You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.

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You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.

You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.

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Before ‘Bass X Machina,’ Netflix Delivered Another Anime Based on a Historical Figure

Bass (Brian Tyree Henry) staring down someone with his mechanical arm bared in Bass X Machina

Image via Netflix

Ironically, Bass X Machina won’t be the first time that LeSean Thomas filtered a historical figure’s story through the lens of anime. In 2021, Thomas brought Yasuke to the streamer, teaming with legendary anime studio MAPPA (Attack on Titan) in the process. Like Bass X Machina, Yasuke tells the real-life story of the titular Black samurai; it also weaves supernatural elements into its narrative as Yasuke (voiced by LaKeith Stanfield) faces off against a legion of demons and steampunk warriors. Thomas’ approach to Black history may be unorthodox, but it adds real variety to the types of Black stories told on screen.

The life of Bass Reeves has inspired many forms of pop culture, including the Lone Ranger. Bass X Machina is the latest attempt, and it looks like Netflix is pulling out all the stops to make this a series worth watching.

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Bass X Machina premieres on Netflix on November 3. Lawmen: Bass Reeves is currently available to stream on Paramount+.


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Release Date
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2023 – 2023-00-00

Network

Paramount+

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