The Young Guns cast reunited after 38 years — and Emilio Estevez's announced Young Guns 3 rests on one loophole
Regulators, mount up, and also stretch first, because everybody in this photo has been famous since the Reagan administration. The Young Guns boys — Emilio Estevez, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlie Sheen, Lou Diamond Phillips, Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemaszko — got back together at Fan Expo Dallas.
And listen, cast reunions are usually three guys and an apology, but this one was nearly the full posse, with Terry O'Quinn (yes, Locke from Lost, who was in the 1988 original) wandering into the group shot like a bonus level.
The photos, the captions, the feelings
Phillips posted the boys with a caption Deadline politely rendered as "F'ing Epic!" — censored by the man himself, a professional. Mulroney went for the tearjerker instead:
"38 years later #youngguns rides again - PALS"
PALS. In all caps. I'm not crying, there's just gunsmoke in my eye.
About that third movie
This wasn't pure nostalgia — it's marketing with spurs on. Estevez announced back in January 2025, standing next to the actual governor of New Mexico, that he'll direct Young Guns 3: Dead or Alive, shooting where the originals were made, with Phillips and Christian Slater expected back. No release date yet. Pre-production purgatory is undefeated.
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There's just one tiny structural issue: this franchise killed most of its cast. On camera. Repeatedly. Which brings us to the loophole holding this entire enterprise together, courtesy of Phillips himself, who teased on the Inside of You podcast:
"Those of us whose deaths were off-camera get to come back."
The loophole, appreciated properly
That's it. That's the whole legal framework. If the movie showed you dying — Dick Brewer, we saw the whole thing, sir — you stay dead. But if your demise happened conveniently off-screen, like Phillips' Chavez, whose end was talked about rather than shown? Congratulations, you were legally napping.
It's the soap opera rule applied to the Old West, and I sincerely hope the script commits to it with zero shame:
- Died off-camera: welcome back, here's your horse.
- Died on-camera: you may appear in a dream sequence, tastefully lit.
- Billy the Kid: historically shot in 1881, sure, but Estevez is directing, so Billy will be fine.
Thirty-eight years, one loophole, six men who still fit in one selfie. Ride.
Previously we wrote: Is Hanging by a Wire a true story? Where the footage inside the cable car actually came from
