Kevin Bacon to Lead Hulu Drama Pilot ‘Southern Bastards’

Kevin Bacon has a new project.

The Footloose star has been tapped to lead Hulu’s new drama pilot Southern Bastards, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on a graphic novel of the same name by Jason Aaron and Jason LaTour, the pilot comes from Disney’s Onyx Collective, POV Entertainment, and Ryan Coogler’s Proximity Media in association with Fifth Season. Reinaldo Marcus Green will direct the pilot, with the story by Bill Dubuque and Nia DaCosta. Dubuque will be writing the teleplay. Matt Olmstead is serving as showrunner.

Per the official logline, Southern Bastards follows “a tenacious military vet into Craw County, Alabama, in search of her estranged father. What she finds is a murderous hornet’s nest of organized crime run by the winningest high school football coach in the South.”

Bacon is set to portray Earl, the son of Craw Country’s legendary Sheriff Bert, “who rules with an iron fist.” Earl is described as a “tough but humble Army veteran, eager to reconnect with his estranged daughter and not afraid to stir things up in his hometown.” As of now, additional casting has not been announced.

Dubuque, DaCosta, Olmstead, Green, Aaron, and LaTour are executive producing Southern Bastards alongside POV Entertainment’s Layne Eskridge and Ryan Coogler, Sev Ohanian, and Zinzi Coogler for Proximity Media. Proximity’s Simone Harris and POV’s Kate Berry are co-executive producers, while Proximity creative executives Hannah Baker and D’Angelo Louis will oversee production.

Bacon most recently starred in and directed the horror comedy Family Man, which premiered at SXSW in March. In 2025, he starred in the romance dramedy The Best You Can and starred in Netflix’s dark dramedy series Sirens and Prime Video’s supernatural horror comedy series The Bondsman. Along with Southern Bastards, he is set to star in the new documentary series History’s Strange Fortunes with Kevin Bacon at A+E.

With Southern Bastards only in its pilot phase, it’s possible information on the show’s future won’t be announced for a while, especially since Bacon is the only one on the cast right now. But now that Bacon has joined the show, it’s likely more information should be revealed in the coming months. If anything, fans could look forward to seeing Kevin Bacon on their TV screens again in the near future.