Kevin Costner Premieres ‘Horizon: Chapter 2’ at Santa Barbara Film Festival, But Future Remains Unclear

Kevin Costner presented the U.S. premiere of Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 on Friday night at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, but offered no new details on the future of the four-part Western series. Despite the uncertainty, the second chapter ends with an extended preview of Chapter 3, hinting at what’s to come.

Costner introduced the film at the historic Arlington Theatre, where he was joined by several cast members and notable guests, including Quentin Tarantino. Speaking to a packed audience, Costner reflected on the inspiration behind the sprawling frontier saga.

“The people who traveled across the ocean to America were in search of a dream,” he said. “If you were mean enough and tough enough, you could make it yours. And that was a nightmare for the people who had been here for 15,000 years… It was a bad ending for the Native Americans who existed here and had found some equilibrium. I’m not embarrassed about that — I’m just disturbed we don’t know more about it.”

Jon Beavers, who stars in Horizon and is currently featured in Hulu’s Paradise, expressed his enthusiasm for continuing with the franchise. “Anytime Kevin tells me to jump on a horse, I’m there,” he said.

Veteran actress Kathleen Quinlan, who plays a key role in Chapter 2, confirmed she won’t appear in the next installment but praised the film’s attention to female characters. Costner emphasized that women were essential to telling the story authentically.

“I was always bothered that we didn’t have more women in our Westerns, because there was no West without women,” he said. “We’re kidding ourselves if we think otherwise. When we were creating the story, we could not keep women out of it. It just was easier with them in it.”

Costner was not asked about concrete plans for Chapters 3 and 4, but he briefly touched on the long road to getting the saga made. “I started this in 1988. I couldn’t make it then and it didn’t seem like anybody liked it too much, so I thought, ‘F**k it, I’m going to write four more.’”

He personally financed much of Chapters 1 and 2, despite lukewarm critical and audience response to the three-hour debut released earlier this year.

Still, the Santa Barbara crowd was supportive. “This is where I make my home, and you made me feel like a giant tonight,” Costner said, thanking festival director Roger Durling for long-standing support of the project.

Horizon: Chapter 2 had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September, where Variety’s Jessica Kiang praised its sweeping cinematography and standout sequences like a barn-dance gunfight and a wagon burning. The film is set for theatrical release in Germany on April 3, but no U.S. release date has been announced.

The film co-stars Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Giovanni Ribisi, Danny Huston, and Jena Ma