He’s wanted, dead or alive.
“Hunger Games” star Tom Blyth returns as one of history’s most notorious Wild West gunslingers in Season 2 of the MGM+ historical drama series, “Billy The Kid.”
“I was worried when we were coming back, because we had a six-month break. I was a little concerned that I would forget what he sounded like and how he walked,” Blyth, 29, told The Post.
“But the minute I put the costume on and started saying the words, I was like, ‘Oh, he’s there.’ It’s funny, I feel like my eyes change when I’m doing it. I feel like Billy comes in.”
Returning Sunday, June 2 (9 p.m.), “Billy the Kid” is a historical drama created by Michael Hirst (“Vikings”), set in the 1800s American West, following the life of notorious outlaw Henry McCarty, aka Billy the Kid, who was alleged to have shot and killed over 20 men before he was gunned down at age 21.
As Season 1 showed, Billy didn’t set out to become a criminal on purpose. Season 2 finds him easing into outlaw life.
“That was what was so fun … getting to undermine that a little bit and not just play him as a bad guy, but playing him as a young man who’s trying to muddle through,” said Blyth, who is British.
“But he also happens to be extremely skilled at being an outlaw. And so this second part of Season 2… it’s very exciting, because you get to see him kind of be a badass,” he went on. “He keeps getting tougher. We wanted to portray him as a teenager at the start. By the end, if we were to get more seasons, hopefully we’re going to show him becoming a hardened man who finds this all a lot easier.”
Blyth has become something of an expert on villain origin stories, because in addition to Billy the Kid, he’s best known for playing the young version of notorious “The Hunger Games” villain Coriolanus Snow.
Starring in 2023’s “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” between seasons of “Billy the Kid” changed his life “hugely,” he said.
“I’ve been acting since I was like 14. So, for 15 years, I’ve been trying to do this in earnest… That [movie] kicked down so many doors for me that I’ve been knocking on for quite a few years. ‘Billy the Kid’ was the thing that started that process. It was my first lead role… There was no better training than that huge set with hundreds of people, horses, weaponry… It was a magical experience. And then ‘The Hunger Games,’ was like that, times 10.”
Blyth enjoys playing characters like Coriolanus Snow and Billy because, “it’s so much fun to watch someone play all the complexities and intricacies of someone who is not always good and not always bad, and is fully human,” he explained. “I think it’s why we tell stories, right? They try to understand humanity.”
But, he added, “It would be nice to at some point play someone who is just a lovely guy! He doesn’t ever have to reach for a gun, or become a murderous dictator… For now, I’m really enjoying challenging myself, and doing things that are different from the last thing. Also, I’d like to do a rom-com, at some point.”
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