Angel and the Badman (2026)

Angel Studios, freshly rebranded from its 2025 name change, has tackled the third incarnation of the 1947 John Wayne western “Angel and the Badman.” After a 2009 Hallmark Channel version set in wintry British Columbia, the new take lands in sun‑baked New Mexico under director Julio Quintana, with Zachary Levi stepping into the outlaw‑turned‑redeemer Quirt Evans role. Levi’s performance swings between modern‑day quips—“goodbyes ain’t never really been my thing”—and the darker legacy of his character’s violent past, leaving the tonal balance uneven. The film’s bright spot is an 80‑year‑old Tommy Lee Jones, who inhabits the wily U.S. Marshal Harry Carey with a higher‑pitched voice and razor‑sharp one‑liners that often outshine the surrounding material. Visually, cinematographer Alex Quintana delivers competent, if unremarkable, New Mexico vistas. The opening long‑shot of a lone rider pursues the promise of classic western grandeur, but the rest of the picture feels padded with freshly‑yanked belt buckles and hastily painted signage, muting the gritty texture that made the original a “character‑specific and flavorful” gem. While the remake leans heavily into Angel Studios’ values‑based branding, critics note that its sanctimony replaces the original’s chemistry and piety, leaving fans of the John Wayne classic yearning for the spark that once lit the frontier.

Zachary Levi is trading his modern‑day heroics for a dusty pair of spurs in Angel and the Badman, the 2026 remake of John Wayne’s 1947 western. Directed by Julio Quintana, the film pits Levi’s wounded gunfighter against Meg Fraser’s rancher’s daughter, echoing the original’s tale of a Quaker woman nursing a bruised outlaw back to health. The cast rounds out with familiar faces like Tommy Lee Jones, Neal McDonough and Jean Louisa Kelly, promising a blend of classic western grit and contemporary charm. The revival opens its doors on Friday, October 9, 2026, in select U.S. theaters. Fans can track showtimes through Fandango, but there’s no streaming option on the horizon yet – the movie is strictly a theatrical event for now. Angel Studios, the faith‑based distributor behind the project, isn’t planning a Netflix or Prime Video debut anytime soon. While a digital purchase or rental on Prime may eventually appear, the film will likely follow the studio’s usual pattern: a video‑on‑demand window about a month after its theatrical run, with a possible streaming debut on the Angel Studios website for guild members around mid‑to‑late November 2026. Until then, the only way to watch the story is in a cinema or by revisiting the 1947 classic, which streams for free on Tubi.

The 2026 remake of Angel and the Badman opened to a harsh critical reception, earning just 23% on Rotten Tomatoes from 13 reviews. That score sits 48 points below John Wayne’s 1947 original, which still enjoys a respectable 71% critics’ rating after nearly eight decades. Critics singled out Levi’s turn as the notorious gunslinger Quirt Evans, calling his performance uneven and the film’s tone all over the place. The remake also abandons the original’s Quaker backdrop in favor of a broader Christian framing, and many reviewers say it loses the Western atmosphere that made the 1947 version stand out. When stacked against recent successful Western revivals—The Coen brothers’ True Grit (95%), James Mangold’s 3:10 to Yuma (89%) and Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven (64%)—Levi’s effort looks especially thin. It also marks director Julio Quintana’s lowest‑rated project; his earlier films like The Long Game (82%) and Blue Miracle (68%) were far better received. Levi’s recent filmography shows a pattern of critical miss‑hits paired with stronger audience scores, as seen with Harold and the Purple Crayon (28% critics, 89% audience) and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (49% critics, 85% audience). Whether Angel and the Badman can echo that audience‑favor split remains to be seen as the movie continues its theatrical run.

Julio Quintana’s fresh take on the 1947 John Wayne classic lands in theaters with Zachary Levi as Quirt Evans, a wounded outlaw whose path to salvation is paved by the fierce Worth family. Levi says the film’s heart is “the love of this family… the love of God being kind of transfused through that family,” turning a bad man into an unexpected angel through grace, mercy and forgiveness. The Worth women drive the story’s moral compass. Meg Fraser’s Penny is described as “strong, smart and up for a challenge,” capable on a horse and in leather gloves, yet still guided by a compassionate heart that melts the ice around the men. Jean Louisa Kelly’s widowed mother Irene and Melissa Chambers’ grandmother Harriet extend that generosity even to the ailing villain Laredo, played by Neal McDonough, whose stubborn code ultimately rejects their love. Veteran actor Tommy Lee Jones appears as the U.S. Marshal, raising the stakes and “upping everyone’s game,” according to McDonough. Meanwhile, McDonough highlights the film’s rare balance: “the women have such power and such strength… while the men get to be men and do what westerns dictate they’re supposed to do.” Quintana, who initially thought Angel Studios wanted a Batman reboot, says the remake lets him spotlight frontier women’s capability and the transformative power of faith. The result is a quintessential Western that blends classic gun‑slinging with a modern, redemptive message.