Exclusive: The Westies cast interviews with J.K. Simmons, Titus Welliver, Tom Brittney, Jessica Frances Dukes & More
Premiering on MGM+ on Sunday, July 12, 2026 at 9pm ET/PT with two episodes, followed by a weekly release through Sunday, August 23 is the gritty series The Westies, starring J.K. Simmons, Titus Welliver, Tom Brittney, Stanley Morgan, Sarah Bolger, Jessica Frances Dukes, Hamish Allan-Headley, Vincent Walsh, Allen Leech and Hillary McCormack.
The Westies is a gritty and kinetic crime drama centering on New York City’s infamously violent Irish gang of the same name. The series is set in the early 1980s when the construction of the Jacob Javits Convention Center on the Westies’ home turf in Hell’s Kitchen promises a financial windfall.
Despite being outnumbered fifty-to-one by the Five Families of the Italian Mafia, the Westies’ legendary brutality and cunning have given them the leverage necessary to share the spoils through a fragile détente. But internal conflict between the brash younger generation and the old-school leadership threatens to set a match to this powder keg, which will sweep the Westies into the FBI’s ever-deepening investigation into the Italian mafia.
Oscar winner J.K. Simmons co-leads the 8-episode series as Eamon Sweeney, the charismatic but ruthless leader of The Westies whose old-school charm and neighborhood loyalty mask fierce criminal ambition and calculated brutality.
Tom Brittney is Simmons’ co-lead, playing the role of James “Jimmy” Roarke, the fiercely loyal, streetwise leader of the younger generation of Westies, a rising Irish gangster mentored by Eamon Sweeney, whose allegiances will be challenged as the Westies forge a partnership with the Gambino Crime Family.
The cast also includes Titus Welliver as troubled NYPD officer Glenn Keenan, who is also a thorn in Eamon’s side, and Jessica Frances Dukes as Birdie Polk, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Gambino Task Force, determined to take down Irish and Italian organized crime.
Blackfilmandtv.com's Wilson Morales talks The Westies cast members .K. Simmons, Titus Welliver, Tom Brittney, Jessica Frances Dukes, and executive producers Chris Brancato and Michael Panes
