Decades on, Tombstone is still one of the most rewatchable Westerns ever made, and its legacy has only grow in the years since its release. Despite a turbulent production and Kevin Costner’s infamous attempts to sabotage it, George P. Cosmatos’ charming take on the Gunfight at the OK Corral is a true pop-culture icon in a way that Hollywood no longer seems interested in making.
That said, even the most untouchable movies end up coming back around in discussions. Hollywood’s power players are now so invested in mining established properties and existing audiences that time puts everything back on the table. Even a Back to the Future remake will end up discussed at some point, if it hasn’t already. Westerns are no different: this century has already seen remakes of some true masterpieces, and the results have been surprisingly great.
Angel Studios has just remade John Wayne’s Angel and the Badman, but before that, we had excellent redos by James Mangold of 3:10 to Yuma, Ethan and Joel Coen of True Grit, and Antoine Fuqua of The Magnificent Seven. All three proved that a modern touch and a slightly more gritty approach could actually make something just as good as the original - if not better. I’ll leave it to you to decide which one I mean in that case.
Sooner or later, because every legendary property gets called back into the arena, we’re probably going to get a Tombstone remake. And as long as the studio makes the right decisions, it may actually turn out well. That will, of course, require casting well, given the brilliant Tombstone cast dynamic back in the 1990s. And if Tombstone was remade today, these actors would be the absolute best picks to replace Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, and co.
Val Kilmer’s performance as Doc Holliday was so stunning that it’s rather unfairly considered an out-of-character flash of excellence by the actor. That’s unfair, as he showed great depth across his underrated career, but there’s no getting around the fact that Doc is his best performance. He steals basically every scene he’s in with languid brilliance, committing Hollywood’s coolest ever dentist to the screen in a way nobody else could have at the time.
To replace Kilmer, you need an interesting actor with similar versatility and a flair for playing both aristocratic and unhinged characters. You’d also need someone brave enough to know that replacing Kilmer is any Tombstone remake’s biggest hurdle. Robert Pattinson is that man. He’s spent the last decade gleefully dismantling his teen heartthrob image with some incredible and often very strange performances. He’s a chameleon-like actor unafraid of playing unlikable figures, but also deeply charming ones, and there’s nobody else who could as impressively capture the necessary balance between courtly gentleman and cold-blooded killer.
Kurt Russell may feel irreplaceable as Wyatt Earp, but he’s too old to bring back, and bringing in his son Wyatt to play his namesake would be too easy. You need an actor with easy charm who can believably sell Earp’s history of violence, but also the warmth that’s key to his character arc. He needs conviction as well as the potential to be terrifyingly physical and furious when called upon, and Jake Gyllenhaal is the ideal choice in 2026.
Gyllenhaal has shown great versatility over his career and could easily balance Earp’s quieter, world-weary domestic side with the raw menace he shows as he’s driven to seek revenge. In the likes of Nightcrawler, Prisoners, and Brokeback Mountain, he plays men carrying huge internal weight who snap, and his physical performance in Road House was eye-opening. He’d feel more volatile than Russell, but it’s not a bad thing to have some difference.
Trying to out-cowboy the legendary Sam Elliott is a complete waste of time. He gave Virgil Earp his patented brand of deep-voiced, towering presence, and the kind of Wild West credibility that made him an ideal city marshal for Tombstone. He also has a paternal feeling that makes him convincing as Kurt Russell’s big brother and moral crutch. Casting those elements of the character, and with sheer presence in mind, is the only way to compete with Elliott.
Lee Pace unquestionably has the required physical stature, standing at 6’5”, and he has a booming theatricality that would suit Virgil’s dynamic as well as his authority. He has an action star’s physique and a classical actor’s approach, and he looks incredible with a giant mustache, which goes a long way in Tombstone. Crucially, his stoic presence would be a great parallel to his vulnerability when Virgin is ambushed, adding just the right emotional heft to Wyatt’s vendetta ride.
Bill Paxton played Morgan Earp with uncharacteristic boyish restraint but no lack of charm and optimistic innocence in the original Tombstone. He’s less battle hardened than his brothers - in real life, he’d never been in a gunfight - and the crucial requirement in recasting Morgan is capturing both that wide-eyed enthusiasm and a likability factor to convincingly make him the heart of the Earp clan.
While casting Wyatt Russell in the same role as his father would be too on-the-nose, bringing him in as Morgan Earp would be inspired. There’s obviously meta-textual resonance, but Russell has also built a great career on his likable charm and the same earnestness Paxton brought to Morgan. And his death would have added power because of his ties to the original movie.
Michael Biehn was incredible as Johnny Ringo in the original Tombstone, playing him as a tortured, whip-smart sociopath, driven by his dark ego and an appetite for violence. He’s also a scholar - as gifted in intellect as he is with a gun - and a perversely charming nihilist, who ends up being the perfect dark mirror to Doc Holliday. Recasting Ringo means finding someone as captivating and as terrifying.
If you want to bring a psychotic supporting villain in - particularly in Westerns - you cast Ben Foster. Nobody does unhinged, high-intensity Western villains and antiheroes as him, as he proved in 3:10 to Yuma and Hostiles, and his moral complexity in Hell or High Water was an asset for a less conventional “bad guy.” He does intellect and violent potential well, and he’s one of the few actors currently working who could stand up to Biehn’s performance. As with the original, you’d fully believe Foster’s Ringo was always a few steps away from answering his call back to Hell.
Powers Boothe was a completely different villain than Johnny Ringo, who is like a coiled spring ready to snap: his Curly Bill Brocius is more cartoonish and theatrical as the leader of the Cowboys, who feels chaotic and unpredictable, but more animated than Ringo.
Recasting him and keeping some of that energy means bringing in someone like Walton Goggins who has a strong previous track record with darkly charismatic villains with a perversely comic edge. Between his work in Justified, The Shield, The Hateful Eight, and Fallout, Goggins has proven himself a master of charming southern villainy and sits perfectly in the space between hilarity and shocking violence that could instantly flip either way.
Dana Delany played Josephine Marcus as the belle who convincingly captivated Wyatt Earp almost instantly. She avoids appearing as a passive damsel in distress, and instead matched Earp’s strong-willed nature as a touring actress comfortably entering some of the moral cesspits of the frontier.
Karen Gillan possesses both the charisma and the comedic timing required to make Josephine a presence alongside an otherwise male-dominated cast and story environment, as she already proved in the Jumanji franchise. She’s intelligent, vibrant and could give Josephine a fire to balance Gyllenhaal’s Wyatt Earp at the center of the story’s emotional heart.
Tombstone's cast is great because there's quality beyond just the main characters, with great actors turning up in minor and supporting roles. Billy Bob Thornton famously appears in an early appearance, and that impressive eye for casting meant there are lots of familiar faces in Tombstone you probably forgot, including Charlton Heston, Michael Rooker, and Lost's Terry O'Quinn. Some of those roles need some interesting casting choices to fit the spirit of the original movie.
Starting at the top, the narrator is an important pick: in the original, Western legend Robert Michum was called upon, and there's no better replacement for that prestige role than Kurt Russell, as a nod to his foundational role in Tombstone's legacy. The villainous gang included Thomas Haden and Stephen Lang as the notorious Clacton brothers, and Iwan Rheon and Tim Roth would be great brothers with an age gap.
Dana Wheeler-Nicholson is treated rather uncharitably by Tombstone's story as Wyatt Earp's wife, Mattie, but someone like Blake Liveley would be a great get for the role. Then there's Mr. Fabian, the actor who accompanies Wyatt's new love interest, Josephine. Billy Zane played him in the first movie, and someone like Kit Connor with similarly boyish good looks would fit well. And what about Sam Claflin for Sheriff Johnny Behan, played by Jon Tenney in the original? Some of the cast might cost a lot, but it's not my money, so quality matters more.
