Billy Bob Thornton is not leaving Landman. Cameras on the Paramount+ oil drama’s third season started rolling on September 24, 2026, in Fort Worth and Haslet, Texas, with Thornton back as Tommy Norris. The “replacement” now circulating online is a character inside the story: Tommy’s son Cooper, played by Jacob Lofland, who ended Season 2 as president of the family’s new oil company.
That distinction matters because the rumor has been around since January. After Season 2, in which Demi Moore’s Cami Miller fires Tommy from M-Tex Oil, a run of online reports claimed Thornton himself was quitting. He brushed them off in an interview that month, dismissing them as AI-generated junk. He said one such report had paired him romantically with his co-star Demi Moore and another had him leaving the series, and that neither bore any relation to reality.
Thornton also said he enjoys making the show, that he would be on set when Season 3 started shooting, and that he intends to stay for as long as it runs, whether that turns out to be five seasons or six.
How Cooper climbed the ladder
Taylor Sheridan, who created the series with journalist Christian Wallace, has spent two seasons building a succession plot, and it reads most clearly as a sequence of promotions.
- Season 1: Cooper, who quit a petroleum geology degree at Texas Tech, starts as a rookie at the bottom of the oil-field pecking order, on the theory that he should learn the work before running a company. By the end of the season he has assembled oil leases of his own.
- Season 2, Episode 5: Now president of M-Tex, Tommy hands Cooper the landman job, the role that gave the show its title.
- Season 2, Episode 8: Tommy names Cooper project manager over the six wells he drilled, all six of which struck oil, putting him in charge of crew members who once outranked him.
- Season 2, Episode 10: After Cami fires Tommy, he sets up CTT Oil Exploration and Cattle with money from Andy Garcia’s cartel boss Gallino. Cooper becomes president; Tommy takes the senior vice president’s chair.
So on paper, the son now outranks the father. That is the whole basis for the “replacement” framing. Tommy is still the show’s center of gravity, and nothing Paramount+ has announced suggests a reduced role for Thornton.
What is new for Season 3
The genuine casting news is an addition. Paramount+ confirmed on September 9 that Michael Kelly, known for House of Cards and Lioness, will play William Crockett, who runs the largest oil management firm in the world. That sets up a corporate heavyweight against a start-up run by the Norris family.
Four familiar faces have also moved up to series regular: Colm Feore as M-Tex lawyer Nate, Mustafa Speaks as crew boss Theodore “Boss” Ramone, Francesca Xuereb as Cheyenne and Bobbi Salvör Menuez as Paigyn Meester. Demi Moore, Andy Garcia, Ali Larter and Sam Elliott are back alongside Thornton.
For readers outside the US, the mechanics are simple. Paramount+ renewed the show for a third season in December 2025, a month before Season 2 ended. Production was first pencilled in for May 2026 and then slipped to September, a four-month delay that has knock-on effects for the release date.
The real wait is for the premiere
Both earlier seasons landed in November: Season 1 on November 17, 2024, and Season 2 on November 16, 2025. Season 3 will not keep that rhythm. With filming expected to run into the first quarter of 2027, current estimates point to a premiere in mid-to-late 2027, which would be the show’s longest gap between seasons so far.
Thornton has reasons to stay. His Tommy Norris earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best actor in a TV drama in 2025 and a Critics’ Choice nomination in 2026, and the show’s approval on one major review aggregator rose from 78% for Season 1 to 83% for Season 2. Paramount+ has not yet set a Season 3 date.
Further reading
Image: Ed Schipul, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by our Editorial Desk. How we work.
