EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON (2026)

Kelly Reilly • Michelle Williams • Gil Birmingham • Mo Brings Plenty

The frontier was not a beginning—it was an ending.

In Empire of the Summer Moon, the myth of westward expansion is stripped away to reveal the raw and painful truth: a collision between Indigenous survival and the relentless march of an empire. This is not a story of heroic battles, but of the slow, heartbreaking erosion of lives, cultures, and futures.

Two women stand on opposite sides of a world being torn apart: One, a settler woman (played by Michelle Williams), caught in the changing tides of expansion and the cost of civilization. The other, a Comanche woman (played by Kelly Reilly), whose life and identity are being violently erased by the empire that claims the land as its own. The women’s paths cross not in direct conflict, but in the consequences of the world around them—a world that is unforgiving, where the choices of one ripples through the lives of many.

As the Comanche (portrayed by Gil Birmingham and Mo Brings Plenty) endure the crushing force of colonialism, their empire—one that existed long before the settlers arrived—is pushed to the edge of extinction. Love, loyalty, and identity become the first casualties in a war where survival itself is a form of resistance.

Empire of the Summer Moon is not a Western—it is a tragedy, a requiem for what was lost, and a warning for what was built on the bones of so many. The story is told through the eyes of those who endured the cost of progress, reminding us that every empire has its price.

A requiem for what was lost… and a warning for what was built.