Timothy Olyphant Is The Perfect Clint Eastwood Western Replacement

Quality old-school Westerns have been hard to come by in the current era of Hollywood. While more modern takes on the genre have been popping up, especially at the hands of Taylor Sheridan, the classic tales of the Wild West seem to be a dying breed. One of the best pieces of Western media in the modern age is, without a doubt, HBO’s Deadwood, and largely in part due to the collected, calm presence of its lead, Seth Bullock, played brilliantly by Timothy Olyphant. Olyphant’s role as Bullock has seemingly landed him as the go-to gunslinger in a handful of Westerns, both classic-style and modern, including Justified, The Book of Boba Fett, and even The Simpsons.

The classic Western genre has always had its iconic faces. John Wayne, and then Clint Eastwood carried the genre throughout the 1900s, but with Wayne being long passed and Eastwood being 95 years old, a new persona is needed to keep the genre alive over the next decades. That face is unquestionably Timothy Olyphant. Although his resume may not be filled with period piece Westerns, Olyphant plays a shootist to perfection, and there’s one forgotten role from 2011 that proves he’s been more than ready to take the reins.

Timothy Olyphant Voices The Spirit of the West in Rango

Paramount Pictures

One of the greatest Westerns of the last 20 years comes in animated form. Gore Verbinski’s Rango follows an eccentric chameleon who accidentally finds himself stranded in the town of Dirt, where he adopts the name of Rango, pretends to be an outlaw, and becomes the town’s sheriff, swearing to protect the town’s critters from enemies and help them get their water supply back.

Outside of being a generally hilarious movie and a fantastic classic Western, Rango’s voice cast is amazing. The film stars Johnny Depp in the lead role, and he’s supported by Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Alfred Molina, Harry Dean Stanton, Ned Beatty, and, of course, Timothy Olyphant.

Olyphant voices the elusive “Spirit of the West,” a divine entity (who may actually just be a drifter who’s been in the sun too long), who offers Rango guidance at his lowest point. After being found out as a fraud and exiled from Dirt by the villainous Rattlesnake Jake, Rango finds his way to this “Man with No Name,” who offers him the simple advice of: “No man can walk out on his own story,” before angelically disappearing into the Western horizon. The character also has five Academy Awards sitting in his golf cart, the exact number of awards that Eastwood has received.

Not only does Olyphant’s animated character embody the memorable Clint Eastwood characters of iconic movies like Hang ‘Em High, A Fistful of Dollars, and Unforgiven, but he also gives the character’s voice his own spin and teases the audience into wanting Olyphant to appear in more classic-style Westerns.

Rango Remains One of the Forgotten Great Animated Movies of the 2010s

The 2010s were chock-full of some of the greatest animated films of all time. From Zootopia and How to Train Your Dragon, to Frozen and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, it can be easy to overlook some of the films that don’t have the franchise name power behind them, including Rango.

Granted, even though 2011 wasn’t exactly a juggernaut year for animated films, Rango came away with the Oscar for Best Animated Feature when going up against Chico and Rita, A Cat in Paris, and two fan favorites, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots. Rango winning the Academy Award was quite the shocker, considering its performance at the box office didn’t even come close to matching Puss in Boots or Kung Fu Panda 2, though it was still a success.

Critically, though, Rango stands high with an 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, with many critics stating that it pays homage to classic Westerns better than any other film in the modern era and feels like it comes straight out of Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Western filmography. Even the film’s Oscar win against bigger, more popular movies is analogous to a duel where the smaller hero wins.