In December last year, Taika Waititi announced a new half-hour comedy show titled Reservation Dogs, which “follows four Native teenagers who spend their days committing crime… and fighting it”. Now, FX has shared the first trailer, giving us a closer look at the upcoming show.
In the preview, the four protagonists — played by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Devery Jacobs, Paulina Alexis, and Lane Factor — are seen causing chaos in rural Oklahoma. As described in a synopsis, they: “steal, rob and save in order to get to the exotic, mysterious and faraway land of California.”
Co-written and produced by the Jojo Rabbit director, alongside Native American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, the series seemingly takes its name from Quentin Tarantino’s debut feature, featuring some plot similarities.
The trailer also sees the characters don black suits and ties that echo the characters’ costumes in the 1992 film (which Tarantino recently said he’d considered rebooting as his tenth and final film).
Alongside the regular on-screen cast, every writer and director working on Reservation Dogs is Indigenous. “I am so proud to be a part of something that amplifies Indigenous voices and especially proud to be making it with my brother Sterlin Harjo,” wrote Waititi when announcing the show last year.
Waititi has previously spoken out about the racism against Polynesian and Maori people in his home country of New Zealand, in a 2018 conversation with Unknown Mortal Orchestra for Dazed.
Watch the Reservation Dogs trailer below.