Is Bradley Cooper in Dark Winds? Alleged ‘cameo’ explained

❘ Published: 2024-08-20T15:09:37

AMC

Dark Winds has just dropped on Netflix, and viewers are convinced Bradley Cooper “cameos” briefly in the first episode – however, that isn’t quite the case.

AMC’s superb Western noir series (which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score) is now available on the streaming service, coming alongside Interview with the Vampire, Walking Dead spinoffs, and The Terror.

Produced by George R.R. Martin and Robert Redford, the show follows Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) of the Tribal Police, based in Najavo County. When seemingly unrelated crimes start to stack up, he’s forced to challenge his own spiritual beliefs as he searches for answers.

In its opening scenes, we see a man digging a hole who looks a lot like Bradley Cooper – but is it him?

Bradley Cooper isn’t in Dark Winds

That isn’t Bradley Cooper in the first episode of Dark Winds. It’s Ryan de Quintal, who plays a character called Richard.

The show opens with an explosive robbery in Gallup, New Mexico, revealing police corruption in the town as a helicopter flies away with the money.

Meanwhile, down on the ground, Leaphorn is forcing Richard to dig up the Native American artifacts he’d stolen and buried. “You don’t have to do this,” he says, as Leaphorn places his hand on his gun.

He doesn’t shoot him. Instead, he makes Richard show him everything he took and then bury it all again. “If I catch you stealing artifacts again, the hole you’ll be digging… it’ll be a lot bigger,” the officer warns.

In this scene, De Quintal is the spitting image of Cooper (particularly in his American Sniper role), so it’s easy to see why people thought it was him.

“The guy digging a hole to replace the stolen relics looks like Bradley Cooper in disguise,” one Redditor wrote, and other replied: “I was so convinced. Then I saw the body and said no but then kept looking at the face like this is him. He looks like Bradley Cooper with a broken nose and beard.”

Other AMC shows on Netflix now

Dark Winds isn’t the only AMC series streaming on Netflix. As of August 19, there are 16 TV shows available to watch right now, and we’ve listed them below:

A Discovery of Witches (Seasons 1-3)
Anne Rice’s Mayfair Witches (Season 1)
Better Call Saul (Seasons 1-6)
Breaking Bad (Seasons 1-5)
Dark Winds (Seasons 1-2)
Fear the Walking Dead (Seasons 1-8)
Gangs of London (Seasons 1-2)
Interview with the Vampire (Season 1)
Into the Badlands (Seasons 1-3)
Kevin Can F**k Himself (Seasons 1-2)
Monsieur Space (Season 1)
Preacher (Seasons 1-4)
That Dirty Black Bag (Season 1)
The Terror (Season 1)
The Walking Dead (Seasons 1-8)
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (Season 1)

There are two others in the pipeline: The Walking Dead: Dead City will start streaming on January 13, 2025, alongside The Ones Who Live.

In the meantime, find other TV shows streaming this month and binge-worthy TV shows to add to your watch list.