‘The Righteous Gemstones’: How Bradley Cooper Got To Star In Season 4 Premiere, Where Was The Cast & When Will They Return

deadline.com:

SPOILER ALERT: The story includes mild spoilers from the Season 4 premiere of HBO‘s The Righteous Gemstones. The Righteous Gemstones fans tuning in for the Season 4 premiere may be doing a double take or checking the menu to make sure they’ve got the right show as Danny McBride‘s HBO televangelist comedy kicked off its final season in an unexpected fashion — by traveling back to 1862 with none of the series’ cast in sight.

Titled Prelude, the supersized, 43-min season opener plays like a Civil War movie — graphic violence included — with a surprise leading man, Bradley Cooper, playing a Gemstone ancestor.

He carries the entire episode, which chronicles his character’s journey from a scheming, unscrupulous crook who would do anything for money — including kill people and pretend to be a pastor and join a Confederate unit as a Chaplain — to redemption.

As the episode’s official logline puts it, “a case of divine intervention changes the sinner’s path for good” — and also charts the Gemstones’ career path for the next century and a half.