How The Taylor Sheridan Show continuing to win over audiences, the western is experiencing something of a renaissance. It’s a shame, then, that Pedro Pascal’s supernatural westerns never got a chance to flourish amid the renewed interest in the genre. The Sixth Cannon was an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurt, published by Oni Press. Long before he broke through as Dean Jarrin on The Mandalorian and Joel Miller on The Last of Us , Pascal was slated to play a shooter in a series that only made it to the pilot stage before NBC decided not to move forward.
The Sixth Gun, which began publication in 2010, is set in the 1880s and focuses on six guns, each of which imbues its owner with some sort of dark, mystical power. The main characters, Becky Moncrief and Drake Sinclair, are on a quest to collect all six magical firearms and protect them while being chased by several villains who want to acquire the weapons for their nefarious purposes.
In 2011, Syfy was reportedly developing an adaptation of the comic book series. According to the then message from Alliance of comicsOni Press announced the project at Comic Con that year, but nothing came of it. That is, until NBC took control and ordered a pilot episode. This comes on the heels of another comic book adaptation, The Walking Dead, which proved to be very popular for AMC, and it seems that NBC was keen to capitalize. Unfortunately, it remains unlikely that the “Sixth Gun” would enter the pantheon classic westerns of all timewe only got to see Pascal as a twisted, gun-toting detective in a pilot that remained unavailable for years.
Pedro Pascal played a cunning detective in “The Sixth Gun”.
Pedro Pascal was hardly a rookie when he landed the role in The Sixth Gun. He has already guest-starred on numerous TV shows, including Homeland, CSI, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and had a recurring role on The Good Wife between 2009 and 2011. But “The Sixth Gun” would mark a significant change in his fortunes on the small screen, as it would star Pascal in what would arguably be his biggest TV role. date
In 2013 Deadline reported that NBC had ordered a pilot for “Sixth Gun” with Ryan Condall of Dragon House fame set to write and executive produce. Laura Ramsey joined the cast soon after, ahead of W. Earl Brown, Graham McTavish, Aldis Hodge and Pascal.
Hodge and Pascal were cast as Agent Mercer and Agent Ortega, respectively, two unscrupulous detectives from the Pinkerton investigative agency who are hired by the wealthy Missy Hume (Alena Satin). The pilot (now available on YouTube) features opening cards showing how Hume’s late husband, General Aliander Hume (W. Earl Brown), initially called out six guns during the Civil War before being defeated in battle. The guns were then “scattered to the far reaches of the American West.” A man named Moncrief (René Auberjonois) manages to obtain a sixth gun, and Ortega and Mercer are tasked with finding it and returning it to Yuma, who already has a fifth gun.
Unfortunately, we never got to see the rest of the story, which is a shame because The Sixth Gun could have been one of best tv shows by pedro pascal long before The Mandalorian or The Last of Us.
The Sixth Cannon was promising, but was quickly shot down by NBC
In the pilot of The Sixth Gun, Moncrief lives on a farm with his daughter Becky (Laura Ramsey). When Agents Ortega and Mercer show up, a mystical firearm helps repel the attack. But Moncrief is mortally wounded in the melee and warns his daughter of the weapon’s power before urging her to destroy it. Marksman Drake Sinclair (Michael Huisman) and Bill John O’Henry (James LeGross) help Becky as she is pursued by the Pinkerton con men and the recently resurrected General Hume, who, along with his servant Silas Hedgepeth (Graham McTavish), seeks to recover the weapon.
The pilot opens with a great scene in which Silas descends on the monks protecting General Hume’s tomb and uses the fourth cannon to revive his former commander and his minions. It’s also unintentionally funny when Silas walks around the graveyard unloading bullets into the soldiers’ final resting places, causing them to pop up like cardboard cut-outs.
Alas, on May 8, 2013, the news came The Hollywood Reporter that NBC refused to pick up the show, and we never got to see how its unique blend of supernatural elements with the Old West could have happened. However, Ryan Condoll later told /Film how a failed sci-fi western pilot landed him a showrunner role on Dragon House. According to the writer, the pilot of “Sixth Gun” was shot in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the very place that “GoT” author George RR Martin calls home. The pair happened to have the same agent, so Condal asked to set up a meeting that would eventually lead to the creation of Dragon House. Meanwhile, a year after NBC dropped The Sixth Gun, Pascal made his Game of Thrones debut and never looked back.
