Marvel villain Barry Keoghan to play Billy the Kid in new biopic from producer of The Favourite

The ‘Eternals’ star revealed the project has just been given the ‘thumbs up’

Barry Keoghan is set to play iconic Wild West gunslinger Billy the Kid in a recently greenlit biopic.

The film will reportedly be directed by American Animals‘ Bart Layton, and produced by The Favourite‘s Ed Guiney.

Keoghan, who is best known for his role in The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and will play the villain Druig in upcoming Marvel film Eternals, announced the news in an interview with The Independent.

“We’ve just got the greenlight for that,” he said. “When I say the greenlight, I mean moving into the writing the script part – we’ve got the thumbs up.”

“I’ve been trying to get this made for three years now,” he added.

Henry McCarty, known by his pseudonyms William H Bonnie and Billy the Kid, was a US outlaw who killed eight men before being shot dead at the age of 21.

Keoghan has previously posted pictures on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter teasing the project, with some dating back to 2018.

“We want to steer clear of the cliche of Western movies – we want to humanise Billy,” the actor said. “I relate to him in a lot of ways. He was a survivor.”

Read Keoghan’s interview with The Independent here.