Landman Season 3: Tommy & Galino’s Deadly Standoff – The Cartel Owns Everything Now

Under the merciless West Texas sun, where oil rigs claw at the earth and fortunes flip overnight, Landman closed Season 2 on a moment that felt less like a finale and more like the calm before total destruction. Tommy Norris stood face-to-face with cartel boss Danny Galino Morell, the air thick with threat, money, and unspoken violence. One wrong sentence, one wrong move, and an entire oil empire could erupt into blood and fire. That nerve-shredding confrontation is the fuse for what’s coming next—and now that Season 3 is officially locked in, the fallout is about to be catastrophic.

Season 3 doesn’t just continue the story. It detonates it.

Paramount Plus confirmed the renewal in December 2025, right in the middle of Season 2’s explosive run, and the timing wasn’t subtle. The numbers were undeniable. The Season 2 premiere pulled in more than 9.2 million viewers globally in just 48 hours—a staggering 262% surge over Season 1. That kind of momentum doesn’t whisper success; it screams it. Landman has officially become Paramount Plus’s biggest original hit to date, and the network wasted no time betting bigger on the oil-soaked chaos of West Texas.

With Season 2 wrapping in January 2026 on a jaw-dropping cliffhanger, Season 3 is positioned to tear open every unresolved wound. Tommy Norris, portrayed with brutal restraint by Billy Bob Thornton, is no longer shielded by corporate power. Fired from M-Tex Oil in a ruthless move orchestrated by Cammy Miller, Tommy walked away from the only system that had ever kept him alive in the oil game. In its place, he built something far riskier—and far more personal.

Together with his son Cooper and his estranged father TL, Tommy launched CT Oil Exploration and Cattle, a family-run operation fueled by ambition, resentment, and desperation. It’s a bold reset, but one poisoned at the root. The startup money didn’t come from banks or investors. It came from Galino.

Andy Garcia’s cartel boss didn’t just bankroll CT Oil—he claimed it. The $44 million lifeline wasn’t generosity; it was ownership. Galino made it clear in that final, chilling standoff: if Tommy failed or crossed him, the first thing he’d take wouldn’t be money. It would be family. That threat hangs over every second of Season 3 like a loaded gun.

Production details already hint at how intense the next chapter will be. Filming is set to begin in May 2026 in Fort Worth, Texas—a later start than previous seasons, which typically rolled cameras in late winter. That shift alone changes the tone. Instead of cool mornings and controlled conditions, Season 3 will be shot under brutal summer heat, where sweat, exhaustion, and raw nerves bleed directly into performances. If past patterns hold, the premiere window points toward late 2026, likely November, keeping the annual release rhythm intact.

Taylor Sheridan, the architect behind Yellowstone’s empire and co-creator of Landman alongside Christian Wallace, remains deeply involved. Wallace has teased a return to the dust, danger, and triple-digit temperatures that define the Permian Basin. No official episode count has been confirmed, but expectations point toward another tight 10-episode arc, released weekly to stretch the tension and let every betrayal land hard.

Season 3’s core conflict is clear: Tommy Norris versus Danny Galino. But this isn’t a simple rivalry. It’s an uneasy alliance rotting from the inside out. Galino didn’t just invest—he demanded equal stakes, binding CT Oil’s every success and failure to cartel influence. Every lease signed, every rig drilled, every barrel pumped now carries his shadow.

Insiders hint that Galino’s demands will escalate fast. Oil may be the front, but control is the real prize. There are whispers of CT Oil being pushed into laundering operations, smuggling routes disguised as pipeline logistics, and land disputes engineered to test Tommy’s loyalty. One wrong decision could trigger federal scrutiny—or cartel retaliation.

Billy Bob Thornton has described the finale as nerve-wracking, likening Tommy to a lone coyote scanning the horizon—alive, but surrounded by threats. That metaphor defines Season 3. Tommy is no longer a fixer navigating corporate politics. He’s a survivor balancing his family on a razor’s edge.

The family dynamics alone promise fireworks. Three generations of Norris men now share the same workspace, the same risks, and the same enemies. Cooper, played by Jacob Laughlin, steps into the role of company president with a murder charge from Season 2 still casting a long shadow. His ambition is undeniable, but his past—and his temper—make him dangerously vulnerable in a world where mistakes get people killed.

Sam Elliott’s TL brings gravel-voiced wisdom and unresolved regret into the mix. His old-school values clash with modern greed, forcing Tommy to confront not just external threats, but the family fractures he’s spent decades avoiding. Expect heated arguments in cramped trailers, power struggles over drilling decisions, and emotional reckonings that hit as hard as any cartel threat.

The supporting cast deepens the danger. Ali Larter’s Angela, Tommy’s ex and emotional anchor, is confirmed to return, pulling family turmoil back into the spotlight. Michelle Randolph’s Ainsley and Kayla Wallace’s Rebecca add layers of vulnerability and loyalty that Galino could exploit at any moment. Demi Moore’s Cammy Miller is far from finished, either. Her icy dismissal of Tommy set the stage for corporate warfare, and M-Tex could easily become a rival force sabotaging CT Oil through legal maneuvers, stolen leases, or outright betrayal.

Andy Garcia’s Galino remains the wild card. His calm menace, his willingness to kill his own men to protect a deal, and his obsession with leverage make him the most dangerous presence in the series. Season 3 is expected to push cartel involvement further into the open, transforming Landman from a corporate oil drama into something closer to an outlaw saga. Think rig “accidents” that feel like warnings, enforcers appearing unannounced at drill sites, and midnight meetings where smiles hide death sentences.

There’s no full plot synopsis yet, but all signs point to escalation. The title’s focus on Tommy and Galino’s standoff isn’t just a callback—it’s a promise. That final face-to-face was only the beginning. Season 3 may turn it into a full-blown war over land, loyalty, and blood.

Taylor Sheridan’s storytelling thrives in moral gray zones, and Season 3 is set to live there. Expect twists rooted in real Texas oil lore—equipment failures blamed on rivals, hijacked operations, brutal acts of violence that feel uncomfortably authentic. The delayed production could even allow real-world oil market shifts to seep into the narrative, blurring fiction and reality further.

As filming stretches through the scorching summer of 2026, the pressure cooker environment mirrors the characters’ unraveling lives. If the 100-day schedule holds, production could wrap by early fall, setting the stage for a late-year release. But delays always carry risk—weather, rewrites, or unforeseen obstacles could push the premiere into early 2027. Paramount Plus hasn’t locked a date, but the buzz around November 2026 keeps growing.

Until then, fans are left replaying the Season 2 finale: Tommy’s world collapsing, Cooper’s authority tested, sirens wailing as chaos erupts, and Galino’s chilling warning echoing in the background. Season 3 isn’t about striking oil anymore. It’s about what people are willing to sacrifice when the ground beneath them starts to crack.

Can Tommy play along with the cartel without losing everything that matters? Or will defiance cost him his family? With Galino holding the reins, trust becomes a liability and loyalty a potential death sentence. The oil will keep flowing—but so will the danger.

When Landman Season 3 finally arrives, it won’t just pick up where things left off. It will blow the doors off the entire operation. One bad deal. One family fracture. One fatal misstep. And the empire collapses in dust, fire, and blood.

The ground is already shaking. The explosion is coming—and no one walks away clean.