Wyatt Earp 2 (2026) - Once Upon a Time in a Western

Tim Llewellyn plays Wyatt Earp, who has executed Old Man Clanton, setting the stage for a showdown in Tombstone.

So Wyatt returns to the ghost town of Dead River to set up a meeting with Frank McLaury, a member of his foes, the cowboys.

Wyatt’s deal for Frank: $1,000 and a guarantee that he and his brother won’t be killed in Tombstone.

In return, Frank needs to lure Sheriff John Behan to Dead River so Wyatt can kill him.

Wyatt has Mary Lou Parker, owner of Dead River, pretend to be an outlaw so she can witness the negotiations from a jail cell.

Problem is, Behan smells a trap and won’t enter the town.

Then Wyatt’s ruse with Mary Lou backfires too.

Tim Llewellyn as Wyatt Earp, waiting for John Behan to show up in Dead River in Wyatt Earp 2 (2026)

Laynee Busse as Mary Lou Parker, pretending to be an outlaw in Wyatt Earp 2 (2026)

Review:

At the end of the first film in this series, Wyatt and Deputy Jack Johnson rode off in search of gun runners.

When this film begins, Wyatt is back in the ghost town of Dead River, there’s not a mention of gun runners, but Wyatt somehow knows that a showdown is coming at the O.K. Corral.

Why is Wyatt back in Dead River? Is it the only place in the Old West where a lawman can have a clandestine meeting with an outlaw?

More than likely, it’s because this film was made on a shoestring budget with a cast of six. That makes a ghost town the perfect location.

The result is a first 55 minutes that might be the longest 55 minutes ever filmed for a Western. As though the filmmakers had 10 minutes worth of plot and needed to make it stretch to nearly an hour.

The last 15 minutes are a campy delight, thanks to an atrociously filmed final showdown. I’m not sure whether that was intentional or not.

Meanwhile, Frank McLaury enters the running for the dumbest outlaw ever to grace a Western. He falls for Mary Lou, thinking she’s an outlaw named Betty who gunned down an entire family during a stage holdup.

Then he believes Wyatt would let her out of jail during daylight hours so she can keep him company. And he believes that the woman who murdered an entire family doesn’t know how to use a six-gun and needs shooting lessons.

Wow. Just wow.

Cliff Dean as Frank McLaury, wheeling and dealing with Wyatt Earp in a ghost town in Wyatt Earp 2 (2026)

Lee Pena as Jack Johnson, Wyatt Earp’s trusty deputy in Wyatt Earp 2 (2026)

Directed by:
Brent Bentman

Cast:
Tim Llewellyn … Wyatt Earp
Laynee Busse … Mary Lou Parker
Cliff Dean … Frank
Kenny Schreiber … Old Man Clanton
Lee Pena … Jack Johnson

Runtime: 73 min.

Someone as John Behan, key to the plot, but apparently not worth mentioning in the credits of Wyatt Earp 2 (2026)

Kenny Schreiber as Old Man Clanton, pistol-whipped by a deputy and at a lawman’s mercy in Wyatt Earp 2 (2026)

Memorable lines:

Wyatt Earp: “What I must do here is a ruse. And it must be done alone.”
Mary Lou Parker: “I want to help.”

Wyatt Earp to Mary Lou, after having her pretend to be an outlaw, then turning her over to Frank McLaury for his sexual pleasure: “Have I ever steered you wrong? Ever?”

Mary Lou Parker: “You’re a lawman, right? Yet you talk about murder … like it’s a noble thing only the best men can do.”
Wyatt Earp: “You gotta understand something, Mary Lou. Jails are flimsy. Courts are slow. Witnesses vanish.”

John Behan, of Frank McLaury: “What did you offer him, Earp?”
Wyatt Earp: “That’s for me to know and you to never live long enough to find out.”