Legendary cinema icon Robert Redford is back acting for the first time since his last on-screen appearance six years ago.
One of the most famous Hollywood stars of all time, the now-88-year-old originally made a name for himself in the 1960s, appearing in films including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
His career continued to go from strength to strength as the years passed, with the actor receiving several Oscar nominations and winning for best director in 1980 for his movie Ordinary People, in addition to the honorary Academy Award he was given in 2002.
The last time he was seen in a live-action flick was in Avengers: Endgame in 2019, where he reprised his role as the conniving Alexander Pierce in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Now, six years later, he’s back – joining the cast of the psychological thriller Dark Winds, which is set in the 1970s and follows two Navajo police officers who set about solving the case of a double murder.
Robert is actually already involved in the series, as he’s an executive producer of the drama alongside A Song of Ice and Fire author George RR Martin.
However, the latest episode marked the first time that he’s played a character in the series, making a cameo in the season three premiere opposite George, 76, with the executive producers playing prisoners engaged in a game of chess.
According to Vulture, Robert was the one who tried for a long time to convince George to do the scene with him, and it took some convincing before the moment finally became a reality.
The director Chris Eyre even came up with a backstory for the characters, who were ‘roustabouts that had gotten drunk and disorderly in a neighboring town like Flagstaff, Arizona, and then hitchhiked when they got released and sent to the Navajo Nation’.
The publication claims that the scene was filmed on a closed set at Robert’s request.
Fans of the thriller were over the moon to see the actor back on their screens again.
‘Shout out to these wonderful cameos!! I giggled during S3 premiere when I realized who they were ♟️♟️,’ @klangola wrote on X.
‘Never thought I’d see these greats on screen together!’ @westerosorg wrote, while @AllyKeyoni added: ‘New Robert Redford on screen content this is not a drill!!’
In 2018, Robert announced that he had made the decision to retire from acting.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly at the time, he said that The Old Man and the Gun, which came out seven years ago, would be his final film, stating: ‘Never say never, but I pretty well concluded that this would be it for me in terms of acting. And [I’ll] move towards retirement after this ‘cause I’ve been doing it since I was 21.’
However, he later backtracked on his retirement announcement, telling Variety at the premiere of the film: ‘That was a mistake. I should never have said that.
‘If I’m going to retire, I should slip quietly away from acting, but I shouldn’t be talking about it because I think it draws too much attention in the wrong way. I want to be focused on this film and the cast.’
When asked for clarification on whether The Old Man and the Gun would be his final film, he added: ‘I’m not answering that. Keep the mystery alive.’
Dark Winds airs on AMC in the US. The first two seasons are available to purchase on Amazon Prime Video.
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