Fans of "Longmire" were elated when the show was picked up by Netflix following its cancellation last year by A&E. At Netflix's Television Critics Association press tour panel for "Longmire," as covered by The Hollywood Reporter, the show's executive producers and stars talked about how they felt when they learned that the streaming service gave the greenlight for season 4, and also shared some spoilers for the upcoming season.
Actor Robert Taylor said that he was shocked by the news and initially thought that it was a big joke.
"I didn't believe it," he said. "But I always believed we weren't finished."
"Never before had I wept in a meeting," said executive producer Greer Shephard about her reaction when Netflix decided to pick up the show.
Executive producer Hunt Baldwin said that they had a lot of story left to tell and had every intention of telling that. He added that they are "thrilled that we got to move to Netflix and finish telling the story."
Aside from the show's loyal fans' social media campaign to bring the series back, Shephard gave much of the credit to WBTVG president and chief content officer Peter Roth for finding a new home for "Longmire." She revealed that Roth believed in the show from the start and that it took him just a few minutes from the cancellation of the show for him to get in touch with Netflix VP of Original Content Cindy Holland, who was in Iceland at the time, and letting her know about the fate of "Longmire."
The producers revealed that there will be some changes to the show in season 4, saying that it will feel more cinematic because there are no time constraints and no commercial breaks. But they stressed that even if the show is now on Netflix, there still won't be an increase in vulgarity or nudity.
"We did not want to alienate the incredible fan base," said Shephard.
As for how the show will start, the show creators said that the new season will pick up moments after the season 3 finale in which Walt Longmire found out who was behind the murder of his wife and searches for him with vengeance on his mind. Moreover, Henry will be going up against Walt due to a loophole in the tribal police and tribal courts where they can't prosecute non-natives who commit crimes on the reservation.
Season 4 of "Longmire" premieres on Netflix on Thursday, Sept. 10.
