If you watched the Season 4 premiere of The Righteous Gemstones on Sunday night and were surprised to see a Civil War drama with Bradley Cooper, you probably questioned if you selected the correct show. Rest assured, that opening episode set during the Civil War period is all part of series creator and star Danny McBride’s vision for the final season of Gemstones.
In this standalone episode, McBride portrays the original Elijah Gemstone, a dishonest, murderous outlaw in 1862 Virginia. By killing the real pastor Abel Grieves (played by Josh McDermitt) and stealing his identity, Elijah deceives his way into becoming a troop minister for the Confederate army, marking one of his most significant scams. It is amidst the chaos of war and the moments when his life is spared that Elijah, clutching the stolen pure gold Bible, begins to seek redemption and becomes the first Gemstone to find righteousness.
Prior to the Season 4 premiere, McBride shared insights with Decider about why he decided to create this special episode and why he believed it was the perfect time to introduce this storyline.
“You know, it felt like a fitting way to start the last season, going back and showing maybe how this how this empire began,” McBride explained. “It just felt like it was a fun, creative thing to try to challenge ourselves with. As far as Bradley Cooper, you know, when I wrote the episode, I had no idea who was going to be in it. And then when it came time to cast, I was like, ‘This is a very tall order, none of the cast is in this. It’s a period piece and a different tone. Who could possibly step in here and people wouldn’t be disappointed?’”
Cooper, a 10-time Academy Award nominee whose body of work includes everything from A Star Is Born to Guardians of the Galaxy to American Sniper, may not be the immediate person that comes to mind when someone thinks of television comedies, but that didn’t make any difference to McBride. He said that Cooper was the personification of who he saw as the Gemstones’ ancestor, even though he never dreamed the acclaimed actor would say yes.
“I just like threw off the cuff like, ‘[We need] somebody awesome like Bradley Cooper.’ And then, my producing partners were like, ‘Well, why don’t we just ask Bradley Cooper?’” McBride shared. “He’s not going to do the Gemstones, is he?’ I reached out and gave it to him and he responded he wanted to do it.”
In the modern timeline, the series follows Eli Gemstone (John Goodman) and his three children — Jesse (McBride), Judy (Edi Patterson), and Kelvin (Adam Devine) — thriving Southern televangelists with cash to burn and lessons to learn. Despite channeling the same energy of the modern-day Gemstones perfectly in his performance, Cooper admitted right off the bat to McBride and the other writers that he had never seen an episode of their HBO comedy.
The secret of Cooper’s casting was kept under wraps until the episode’s release, although there was one big clue as to his involvement prior to its debut. The first tip-off to a potential collaboration came via a photo posted to Reddit in 2023, showing Cooper sporting a Bible Bonkers t-shirt while running errands. Fans of the show know that Bible Bonkers is the fictional game show hosted by Baby Billy (Walton Goggins), where devout Christians put their knowledge of the good book to the test. Was Cooper subtly signaling what was to come?
“He had actually never even seen the show before and he said that he wanted to hold off on watching until he was done shooting because he didn’t want to have it influence what he was going to do,” McBride said of Cooper joining the series. “I just thought it was awesome. And it was kind of amazing how he felt like a Gemstone even without seeing any of it.”
Couldn’t agree more. All hail the first of the righteous Gemstone family members!
The first episode of The Righteous Gemstones Season 4 is currently streaming on Max. New episodes premiere Sundays at 10 p.m. ET.
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