Django cast explain "modern take" on the Western genre

Schoenaerts (Amsterdam) said that he had always been attracted to the "cinematic scope of the genre", and acknowledged that it was the goal of director Francesca Comencini and the rest of the team to "make it contemporary".

He explained: "They wanted to take this iconic genre but bring it to the here and now and infuse it with fresh angles. We're not going to reinvent anything, reinvention is too big of a word, I think. But you can just infuse it with actual themes and things that are very on the forefront now."

Meanwhile, Comencini added that the series is "really the search of a balance between paying homage to a time, paying homage to a genre with this legendary genre like the Western, but also trying to be free and trying to find something which has a singularity and a modernity that means for us today".

The series follows jaded cowboy Django as he searches for the daughter he thought he lost, and finds him stumbling upon a town called New Babylon founded by John Ellis where everyone is equal and free.

Nicholas Pinnock (Top Boy), who plays John Ellis in the series, explained his own background with Westerns, saying that they were "very much a part of [his] upbringing".

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He continued: "I had done a deep dive many, many years ago into the Western genre and realised that only 20 per cent of that genre had been told. And that was part of my other fascination, you know, the African Americans, the natives, the Mexicans, the females in these stories had never really been told, because it has all been told from a Western viewpoint.

"So they were always the heroes and everybody else was the villains, and we know that could never be true. So when this came along, and it flipped that on its head in so many different ways, it just didn't feel like there was any reason to say no, because there was every reason to say yes.

"There was all the things that I had been wanting to see in that genre and things that I had been exploring. So it was wonderful to come across this and have them present me with something that was just what I was looking for."

Lisa Vicari (Dark), who plays Django's daughter and John's fiancée Sarah, said that as a German actress she "would never have expected to be part of a Western", but said it was "amazing" to have the opportunity.

She continued: "Then just reading the first episodes and seeing how well all the characters are crafted and how complex they are and what a modern take on a Western it is...

"And then on top of all of that seeing who was behind the scenes and seeing that Francesca is developing it, and that Matthias was attached as Django and all these different aspects coming together, I just really wanted to be part of it. And I'm happy that I am."

Django is coming to Sky Max and NOW on 1st March 2023. Find out more about how to sign up for Sky TV.

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