‘Landman’ Star Billy Bob Thornton on Tommy Norris Taking Over the Company in Season 2

Billy Bob Thornton is back in the oil fields of West Texas for Season 2 of Landman, and this time, his character Tommy Norris is trading punches and pipelines for boardrooms and bigger problems. In a new interview with Deadline, the Oscar winner and series star revealed that his character has been promoted — and the promotion comes with a storm of new challenges.

“All of a sudden, I’m promoted from executive vice president to president of an oil company,” Thornton said, following the death of Monty (played by Jon Hamm) in Season 1. “Which obviously Cami [Demi Moore] now owns because of the death of her husband, but I’ve got to run it because she doesn’t really know how to do that.”

It’s a promotion Tommy never asked for, and as Thornton puts it, it’s a pressure cooker. “Now I’m kind of executive and a landman and a family man in the midst of this tornado,” he explained. “So it makes for some pretty interesting stuff, I have to say.”

Still, the role shift marks a big tonal change in the series. Whereas Season 1 was about surviving on the ground — and, in Tommy’s case, surviving beatdowns from the cartel — Season 2 is about surviving the pressure of leadership. Thornton teased that the dynamic between Tommy and Moore’s Cami Miller will be key to the story ahead. “She’s the boss now, yes,” he said. “But I’m there with her, you know, to kind of show her how these people operate… because I know how to deal with these people that she’s going to have to deal with.”

Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris Will Pull Double Duty in ‘Landman’ Season 2

Tommy’s new job doesn’t mean his old problems are going away. With cartel tensions still simmering, and his complicated relationship with ex-wife Angela (played by Ali Larter) and their children always looming, Thornton says the pressure is greater than ever.

“He goes from having a job that’s really difficult and very dangerous to having two different types of jobs in the same world.”

And if anyone thought the oil game was already cutthroat, Season 2 seems ready to turn up the heat — from both inside the company and out. As Thornton put it, “Problems just come at [Tommy] from every direction — including his family and friends, coworkers, everybody.”

But none of this is going to change Tommy, so do not expect the rough-edged oil man to suddenly don a three-piece suit. Thornton joked that the only real change to Tommy’s wardrobe is that “every now and then I’ll throw a sport jacket over my jeans and crummy button-up shirt.”

Landman Season 2 is in production now.