Titus Welliver Is The Anti-Bosch In New Crime Thriller Series

Titus Welliver‘s next role is the complete opposite of Harry Bosch.

Welliver will be moving between different extremes in his next few projects. The veteran Deadwood alum is coming off a supporting role in AMC’s crime series Dark Winds season 4, joining as the ruthless crime boss Dominic McNair. He’ll swing back in the other direction, reprising his role as Bosch in Ballard season 2. But before he revisits his defining role for the Prime Video spinoff, Welliver will live in the gray.

Welliver is one of the stars of The Westies, an MGM+ Original that will premiere on July 12. He joins a cast that includes Academy Award winner J.K. Simmons, Tom Brittney, and Jessica Frances Dukes for a streaming series that is both a period drama and a crime saga. According to Welliver himself, it won’t exactly be easy to decide whether he’s portraying the hero or the villain.

In an interview with ScreenRant‘s Ben Gibbons for 2026’s Italian Global Series, Welliver was asked how his previous work informed his portrayal of Glenn Keenan in The Westies. Keenan is a detective, though he has a history with the Irish mob. Welliver begins by acknowledging that every character is different, adding that he doesn’t classify characters as “good” or “bad.”

In the quote below, Welliver mentions Bosch and describes the “privilege” of playing the Michael Connelly character, who was the “quintessential antihero.” Welliver goes on to detail Keenan’s history and why he may not be as easy to root for and categorize:

Titus Welliver: You know, every character is different, so my approach to each character is individual. I don’t classify characters as being good or bad, or villains or heroes, because I think there’s always a gray area. To have the privilege to play Harry Bosch for 10 years, who was the quintessential antihero, it’s kind of a marvelous tight rope walk as an actor, to move back and forth. Glenn Keenan is, I think, some people misinterpret it. It might be a bit unclear with the trailer, or some of the things. The character is a uniformed police officer, but he’s been working for many, many years.

So, for all intents and purposes, he should be a detective, but there’s a reason that he’s not. And the character was, at one time, a very righteous character. He served his country, did two tours in Vietnam as a Force Recon Marine. He was a highly-decorated Marine, and then in the police department, and what unfolds within the series is at one point he got too close to the sun. So, his morality has been completely wiped away, that there’s still an inkling of something there. It’s kind of not unlike Darth Vader, right? I love a Star Wars analogy, but his character has been drawn to the dark side, and it’s not for me to say or to look for, or to try to find some redemption for a character. You have to go where the writers take you, but the character has a deep complexity.

There is the job as being a police officer, but he doesn’t really serve that master any longer, and he is more bound to the tribal sense of being Irish and being part of Hell’s Kitchen in that neighborhood, to keep the Italian mafia from trying to take it away from them. And that aspect of that loyalty, I think, is an interesting conundrum for a character to play.

The Westies is set in the early 1980s, opening its story at a pivotal moment. It starts just as the construction of the Jacob Javits Convention Center in Hell’s Kitchen offers the promise of major financial gain for a brutal Irish mob. Although they are outnumbered by the Italian Mafia’s Five Families, the Westies hold enough leverage to claim a portion of the spoils, even as that arrangement depends on an uneasy peace.

Created by Narcos co-creator Chris Brancato and Michael Panes, and consisting of eight episodes, The Westies is centered around the real Irish mob of the same name. The MGM+ Original has been compared to similar dramas like Peaky Blinders and The Sopranos, though the specificity of the lead characters will swiftly give the New York-based twists and turns their own flavor.

The Westies will be, in any case, unlike Bosch. The long-running procedural has received praise for being unflinching in depicting how policing can work, even for the ill. And yet, even within that framework, there was a sense that viewers tended to know where they stood with Harry. It doesn’t sound like Welliver’s latest role will have quite the same clarity.

The Westies debuts July 12 on MGM+

Release Date

July 12, 2026

Network

MGM+

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  J.K. Simmons

  Eamon Sweeney

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  Tom Brittney

  James ‘Jimmy’ Roarke

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  Jessica Frances Dukes

  Birdie Polk