Jk Simmons leads The Westies as Eamon Sweeney, and Titus Welliver plays Glenn Keenan. Collider says the MGM+ series is set in early 1980s Hell's Kitchen, New York City, with the pair at the center of a crime drama built around the Westies. That setup gives the show a familiar crime-world framework, but it does not lock it to strict history.
J.K. Simmons as Eamon Sweeney
J.K. Simmons plays the fictional mob boss Eamon Sweeney in The Westies. The series is a gritty new period crime drama from Narcos creator Chris Brancato, and the lead role places Simmons in the kind of power struggle that usually depends on control, loyalty, and who gets left behind when a crew starts to splinter.
The official plot summary says Eamon Sweeney and Glenn Keenan were childhood friends who have since taken different paths in life. That is a cleaner dramatic hook than a straight retelling of gang history, because it lets the show borrow the atmosphere of the Westies without promising a documentary version of them.
Titus Welliver in July 2025
Titus Welliver told Collider in a July 2025 interview that J.K. Simmons plays the leader of the Irish gang in Hell's Kitchen in New York and that he is from the same neighborhood. He added, “We came up together, but I'm a police officer.” Welliver also said, “He's no Harry Bosch, but believe me, this guy is a Vietnam War veteran. He's a beat cop. He still walks the streets, but he's corrupt. His moral compass has been completely compromised, a”
That makes Glenn Keenan less of a clean-law figure than the badge might suggest. The character moves inside the same streets as Sweeney, which gives the show a built-in collision between old ties and opposite sides of the law.
Hell's Kitchen and New York City
The Westies is inspired by the real-life Irish crime gang known as the Westies, but it uses fictional main characters. That matters because the series can use real-world texture — early 1980s New York City, Hell's Kitchen, and the gangland pressure around them — while still bending events to serve the story rather than history.
Deadline previously reported that Glenn Keenan was involved with the Westies in his youth and is now torn between loyalty to the law and love for his wayward son. Put together with the current casting details, the project looks aimed at viewers who want a crime drama with recognizable names, but not a rigid historical reconstruction.
The practical takeaway is simple: this is an upcoming MGM+ series built around Simmons and Welliver, but the release window has not been set in the available reporting. For now, the clearest signal is the cast and the shape of the story — a period crime drama that leans on real history, then rewrites the people at its center.
