Warning: Contains SPOILERS for The Revenant!
American Primeval is a popular new Western drama miniseries from Netflix, and while the show tells an original story, it also acts as a secret sequel to Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Revenant. In the 10 years since it was released, 2015’s The Revenant has become a Western classic, with it following the true story of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Hugh Glᴀss as he attempts to get revenge on his son’s killers after a brutal bear attack. While DiCaprio’s The Revenant character doesn’t appear in American Primeval, the series does have a major connection to the true story behind the Oscar-winning film.
Netflix’s American Primeval follows a mother and son as they attempt to cross the dangers of the frontier, with Betty Gilpin’s Sara Rowell seeking out a guide to help them survive and find her husband. The miniseries comes from director Peter Berg and The Revenant writer Mark L. Smith. While American Primeval does use a lot of elements of historical fiction, with it being set during the real-life Utah War and featuring true events like the Mountain Meadows Mᴀssacre, it is a fictional story, with this being a major difference between the miniseries and The Revenant.
American Primeval Continues Jim Bridger’s Story, Decades After The Revenant
He May Have Been Involved With The Real-Life Hugh Glᴀss
In American Primeval, Shea Whigham plays Jim Bridger, a real-life mountain man who was the founder of Fort Bridger. As it turns out, this historical figure is the biggest connection between American Primeval and The Revenant, with him being portrayed in both films. A younger version of Bridger is shown in The Revenant, with him being played by Will Poulter. In the film, Bridger is a member of Hugh Glᴀss’ fur trapping party, with him being complicit in the cover up of Hawk’s murder. By the end of the movie, Glᴀss realizes that Bridger was lied to, forgiving him.
Although it isn’t confirmed, it is widely believed that Jim Bridger was involved in the real-life story of Hugh Glᴀss’ survival. Recountings of Glᴀss’ story state that a man named Bridges was one of the men tasked with waiting for Glᴀss to die, with it being believed that Bridges is actually Jim Bridger. As American Primeval showed, Bridger would eventually go on to found Fort Bridger in what is now Wyoming, with him doing this in 1843. The Mormons would eventually buy Fort Bridger and burn it down, similarly to how it is portrayed in American Primeval.
American Primeval Shares Similar Themes With The Revenant
They Are Both About Survival
Although Jim Bridger is the only shared character between the stories of The Revenant and American Primeval, both films also share a thematic connection. Both of the Mark L. Smith scripts attempt to focus on survival, with the stories focusing on the hardships that their characters go through while trying to reach someone. Hugh Glᴀss struggles to find his son’s killers after the bear attack while Sara and Devin Rowell struggle to find Sara’s husband, with both protagonists encountering all kinds of dangers along the way. Near-death experiences are constantly shown, although the characters eventually persevered.
On top of that, The Revenant and American Primeval are both incredibly dark, with the Western stories attempting to show how violent the era was. The Arikara attack at the beginning of The Revenant as well as the bear attack and subsequent action scenes are incredibly violent, although not unrealistically so. Similarly, the Mountain Meadows Mᴀssacre and other battles portrayed in American Primeval are super dark, with them being filled with deaths, gore, and even the killings of children. So, while the stories are different, the settings, tones, and themes are near identical.
American Primeval Repeats A Controversial Aspect Of The Revenant
But It Isn’t Receiving The Same Backlash
One other link between The Revenant and American Primeval is the controversial way that they covered an aspect of the frontier. The Revenant features a group of French-Canadian hunters, with Glᴀss coming across them as they are lynching Hikuc and raping Powaqa. The Revenant received backlash for its protrayal of this group, with actor Roy Dupius criticizing the film for portraying French-Canadians as murderous rapists (via National Post).
Another group of French characters are seen in American Primeval, with them being a cannibalistic family that the protagonists of the series come across. The French family in American Primeval is portrayed almost as monstorous, with them being equally as dangerous as the French-Canadian hunters from The Revenant. Thus, it is possible that American Primeval could face similar backlash, with it repeating the problem from The Revenant.
