Producers’ Notes: Introducing Just Enough Dead

This is where it starts.

On October 27th, the first chapter of a new frontier saga will arrive: Just Enough Dead. It’s a Western told in its rawest form; a story about survival, vengeance, and uneasy alliances. The frontier we’re building is stripped-down and brutal, where justice is measured not in courts but in silence, in grit, and, when there’s no other choice, in bullets.

At its core are two characters who define the heart of the story: Jed Mercer and Lucia.

Jed is a bounty hunter who has seen too much. He’s worn down, scarred by the life he’s led, and haunted by choices that can’t be undone. He is a man defined as much by his silences as by his actions. Then there’s Lucia, a determined stranger whose strength is carved from grief and necessity. She refuses to back down, even when the odds lean hard against her.

Together, they form the unlikely alliance at the heart of Just Enough Dead. They don’t trust each other. They don’t even like each other half the time. But survival has a way of binding people together. Out on this frontier, nothing is simple, and nobody makes it alone.

Producer's Notes: A Love Letter to the Western

To us, Just Enough Dead is a love letter. Not to the polished, romanticised version of the Western, but to the pulp roots that gave the genre its bite. Those dime novels and gritty serials didn’t pretend the frontier was a place of clean morals or clear victories. They told stories where heroes stumbled, where justice came at a cost, and where survival itself felt like a victory.

That’s the tradition we wanted to tap into. The Western isn’t just gunfights and sunsets. It’s a story of reckoning. People against the land. Power against survival. Vengeance against justice. Those are timeless struggles. They’re as relevant today as they were a century ago.

Building the World

The world of Just Enough Dead is unforgiving. Towns are abandoned, water runs dry, and the tracks of the phantom rail cut across the land like a scar. Every choice has weight, and every mistake has consequences.

We wanted this frontier to feel real and lived. To do that, we pared it back to the essentials. The land itself is almost a character: harsh, beautiful, and dangerous. The people who live here don’t have the luxury of thinking in terms of good and evil - they think in terms of survival.

Jed and Lucia don’t arrive in this world as saviours. Jed carries his ghosts. Lucia carries her grief. They clash, they resist, and yet, somewhere in that friction, something larger starts to take root. Their journey isn’t about being perfect. It’s about enduring and about learning what’s worth enduring.

A Series, Not Just a Story

It’s important to say this up front: Just Enough Dead is only the beginning.

We didn’t set out to tell a one-off tale that vanishes with the credits. From the start, this was imagined as a series - each one pulling back new layers of its people, its conflicts, and its history. Jed and Lucia are the first characters you’ll meet, but they’re not the last. Their story is a thread in something bigger, something that stretches across towns, rivers, rails, and lives.

That’s why we’re writing these Producers’ Notes. This is the first of a series of reflections that will carry through the release of the story and beyond. We’ll talk about inspirations, about process, about the decisions that shaped the world of Just Enough Dead. And we’ll do it without spoilers — because part of the thrill is experiencing the twists and turns for yourself.

Why Now?

The Western has always been a genre of cycles. Always reborn in a new form. For us, Just Enough Dead felt like the chance to revisit an older approach to the genre that we don't tend to experience anymore in a world of contemporary and forward thinking western stories.

The questions at the heart of the genre are timeless. How do people survive when the systems around them collapse? What does justice mean when there’s no law you can trust? How far would you go for vengeance and what would you sacrifice for freedom?

These aren’t just questions of the past. They’re questions of now. And the Western, stripped of nostalgia and laid bare, is the perfect place to explore them.

Looking Ahead

When Just Enough Dead arrives on OutWrd+ on October 27th, you’ll step into a frontier shaped by dust, silence, and hard choices. You’ll meet Jed and Lucia, two people bound together by necessity, not by trust. And you’ll see the world that surrounds them; brutal, fragile, and full of stories waiting to be told.

This article is just the beginning. In the weeks to come, we’ll be sharing more about what inspired the project, about the challenges of building a stripped-down Western, and about where this series is headed next.

For now, consider this an invitation to join us on the journey. October 27th is the first step. We'll see you on the trail.