Sheriff Walt Longmire and his adventures in Absaroka County, Wyoming, has been a blockbuster hit for Netflix, even though no new episodes of “Longmire” have dropped since the series finale in 2017.
Even so, it has consistently made the top 20 on the streaming platform, coming in as the No. 3 most popular Western as recently as February of this year.
But Netflix is finally turning the popular show loose as of the end of this month, and it’s already available on Paramount+ for the continued viewing pleasure of fans, as well as a new streaming platform audience.
The moves have “Longmire” creator Craig Johnson, who lives in tiny Ucross, Wyoming, in Johnson County, musing aloud on Facebook about a potential resurgence of the wildly popular show.
“I’m just curious to see if Warner Brothers, now free from the sweetheart deal with Netflix, will finally consider reviving the show,” Longmire wrote on his Facebook page. “Interesting times. I have to admit that I took a great deal of satisfaction canceling my Netflix subscription when I got to the box where they asked why and I simply wrote … LONGMIRE.”
Fans were universally enthusiastic about the idea of a network TV revival on Johnson’s post.
“A revival of Longmire would be amazing,” wrote Jane Eberle Carnes. “I reread the books and rewatch the TV show, so that would be great. I’ve been to Longmire Days in Buffalo and also enjoyed meeting Craig Johnson as well. Longmire has touched so many people, so thank you, Craig Johnson.”
Ditto for Susie Hosier, who said her family has rewatched the entire “Longmire” series three times now, loving it each time.
“The production company that picks up the series, and even better, produces more episodes will have our undying loyalty,” she wrote. “Other series simply mimic the best. Longmire will always be the best series we have ever watched, and the first to earn our addicted status.”
In all, 63 episodes of “Longmire” were made, spanning six seasons of the show.
Other fans were already promising to watch the show on Paramount+ in hopes of boosting the ratings and keeping alive hopes of a resurgence.
“I’ll be rewatching it on Paramount+ to help ratings there,” Calvin Phillips Evetts wrote. “I wish they would bring it back. One of my all-time favorites. And Robert Taylor was great as Walt!!”
Victim Of Its Own Success?
Longmire started out on the A&E Network, and immediately rocketed to the top of viewership ratings with 6 million viewers per episode.
Despite that popularity, A&E canceled the show in 2014, when Warner Brothers refused to sell the brand.
“A broadcaster can make a lot more money off a show if they own it, rather than leasing it from a studio,” Johnson told Cowboy State Daily in 2022. “But Warner Brothers knew they had a hit on their hands with ‘Longmire’ and wouldn’t sell.”
A&E faced a lot of backlash after the surprise cancellation, losing about one-third of its audience as a result — a loss Johnson said the network still hadn’t managed to recoup as of 2022.
Netflix swooped in not long after A&E’s cancellation to save the day, not only picking up the series, but continuing it.
The show’s strong success on the Netflix platform, though, appeared to be its premature undoing once again. Netflix sought to buy the series for itself, Johnson has said, and Warner again refused to sell. That set the show up for yet another earlier-than-expected demise, at the height of its seemingly unending Netflix popularity, in 2017.
At least in that case, a proper season finale was produced, though it’s cold comfort to all the fans of the show who just can’t seem to get enough of watching it, despite no new episodes dropping since 2017. That’s kept the show high in Netflix’s ratings ever since.
Johnson, meanwhile, has continued to write “Longmire” books for his adoring fans, meaning there is no lack of new material should a network decide it wants to make new Longmire episodes or movies.
Law Enforcement Loves ‘Longmire’
Fans have a lot of reasons they love “Longmire” so much that they watch and rewatch the series and read and re-read the books over and over again.
Perhaps the hardest group of fans to keep would be law enforcement officers, but some of them are among his biggest fans.
Take Laramie County Sheriff Bryan Kozak, for example, who was among fans waiting in line last year in Cheyenne to get his Longmire books signed. He sees Walt Longmire as a thinker with a heart of gold. Also, someone who has the same gallows sense of humor that many law enforcement officers have.
That makes it easy for law enforcement officers to relate to “Longmire,” Kozak told Cowboy State Daily.
Aside from always interesting characters — and that includes the villains, unlike many mystery series — there are almost always smart plot lines that keep the action moving throughout the tale, whether it’s one of Johnson’s books or a television episode.
That’s true of Johnson’s most recent novel in the “Longmire” series, “Tooth and Claw,” a short novel set in the Alaska tundra. The novel travels back in time a little bit to just after the Vietnam War. A much younger Walt Longmire and his friend, Henry Standing Bear, have found jobs in the oil field.
But the two are magnets for trouble, and soon find themselves in a face-off against powerful enemies seeking priceless treasures — men who will stop at nothing to get what they want.
Johnson is just finishing up a tour for his latest novel, wrapping up in Montana with stops in Big Horn and Billings on Saturday and Livingston and Butte on Sunday.
After that, the annual Christmas tour begins its 21st year, with Buffalo, Wyoming, up first Friday. The complete tour schedule is available online at Johnson’s website.
Contact Renee Jean at renee@cowboystatedaily.com
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
