\n\t\t\t\t\tMGM+ launches its eight-episode crime drama The Westies on Sunday, July 12, with a special two-episode premiere. J.K. Simmons stars as gang leader Eamon Sweeney, leading a cast including Titus Welliver and Tom Brittney, as the series tracks the real-life Irish-American gang’s fragile d\u00e9tente with the Five Families amid an FBI crackdown in early-1980s Hell’s Kitchen.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Hell\u2019s Kitchen in the early 1980s sat on top of a goldmine: the land where the Jacob Javits Convention Center was about to rise. That construction boom is the backdrop MGM+ uses to launch The Westies, a crime drama pulling this notorious crew out of the history books and onto the screen starting July 12. J.K. Simmons leads as Eamon Sweeney, the gang\u2019s unflinching boss, with Titus Welliver playing an NYPD officer torn between the badge and the block he grew up on. Outnumbered fifty-to-one by the Five Families and shadowed by an FBI agent closing in, Sweeney\u2019s crew has to hold their turf together before it all comes apart.<\/p>\n
MGM+ dives into one of New York\u2019s bloodiest chapters. The Westies, a crime drama from Chris Brancato and Michael Panes, premieres Sunday, July 12 with a two-episode launch, tracing the real-life Irish-American gang that ruled 1980s Hell\u2019s Kitchen. New episodes then arrive weekly through the season finale on August 23.<\/p>\n
J.K. Simmons leads a top-tier cast<\/p>\n
J.K. Simmons stars as the crew\u2019s ruthless boss, who sets the tone in the trailer with a blunt warning: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to send the message. Stay out of Hell\u2019s Kitchen.\u201d Opposite him, Titus Welliver plays Glenn Keenan<\/a>, a troubled NYPD officer who grew up alongside the crew and now finds himself torn between the law and his wayward son.<\/p>\n Tom Brittney rounds out the core trio as Jimmy Roarke, a young gangster convinced his plans are smarter than Sweeney\u2019s, while Jessica Frances Dukes plays FBI agent Birdie Polk, tasked with dismantling New York\u2019s crime families. Sarah Bolger, Allen Leech, Stanley Morgan and Hamish Allan-Headley, the latter as John Gotti, complete the ensemble.<\/p>\n A gang outnumbered fifty-to-one<\/p>\n The story hinges on the construction of the Jacob Javits Convention Center on the Westies\u2019 home turf in the early 1980s, a project promising a financial windfall the gang intends to claim. Standing in the way are the Five Families of the Italian Mafia, who outnumber the Irish crew fifty-to-one, forcing a fragile d\u00e9tente just as the FBI deepens its investigation into the mob. Filming for the 8-episode season took place in Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario, starting in July 2025.<\/p>\n Brancato\u2019s third round with MGM+<\/p>\n For showrunner Chris Brancato, this marks a third collaboration with the platform after Godfather of Harlem and Hotel Cocaine. \u201cThe Westies has been a passion project of mine, and I can\u2019t wait to bring it to life,\u201d he said when the series was ordered in March 2025<\/a>. MGM+ boss Michael Wright called it another crime drama \u201cfrom the incomparable vision of Chris Brancato.\u201d<\/p>\n A global rollout, and talk of more<\/p>\n With Fifth Season handling global rights, the series will reach MGM+ audiences in the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico and beyond alongside its US debut. Co-creator Michael Panes has already discussed plans for a second season<\/a>, telling viewers: \u201cStay tuned for season 2. It gets even crazier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MGM+ launches its eight-episode crime drama The Westies on Sunday, July 12, with a special two-episode premiere. J.K.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-518603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}