EXCLUSIVE: The first trailer for the MGM+ crime drama The Westies has dropped, and Deadline has your first look at the series above. Co-creator Chris Brancato sets up the trailer and shares other show secrets below, where as-yet-unreleased photos can also be found.

The Westies premieres on July 12 via MGM+.

The Westies is set in the early 1980s, when the construction of the Jacob Javitz Convention Center on the Westies’ home turf in Hell’s Kitchen promises a financial windfall for the Irish-American organized crime gang. Despite being outnumbered 50-to-1 by the Five Families of the Italian mafia, the Westies’ legendary brutality and cunning have given them the leverage necessary to share the spoils through a fragile détente. However, internal conflict between the brash younger generation and the old-school leadership threatens to set a match to this powder keg, which will sweep the Westies into the FBI’s ever-deepening investigation into the Italian mafia.

Oscar winner J.K. Simmons co-leads the 8-episode series as Eamon Sweeney, the charismatic but ruthless leader of The Westies whose old-school charm and neighborhood loyalty mask fierce criminal ambition and calculated brutality.

Tom Brittney is Simmons’ co-lead, playing the role of James “Jimmy” Roarke, the fiercely loyal, streetwise leader of the younger generation of Westies, a rising Irish gangster mentored by Eamon Sweeney, whose allegiances will be challenged as the Westies forge a partnership with the Gambino Crime Family.

The cast also includes Titus Welliver as troubled NYPD officer Glenn Keenan, who is also a thorn in Eamon’s side, and Jessica Frances Dukes as Birdie Polk, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Gambino Task Force, determined to take down Irish and Italian organized crime. Allen Leech and Sarah Bolger also star.

“The trailer showcases J.K. and Titus, and the other actors are performing in a situation where the Irish are tied to the Gambino Italian crime family, and at the same time, Eamon is also dealing with a little bit of internal rebellion amongst the younger Westies who are under his command,” shared Brancato, who co-created the series alongside Michael Panes. “It also teases the fact that within the Westies, there’s going to be drama and conflicts to come.”

Diving further into the internal drama, Brancato stated, “The series as a whole depicts the Westies’ internal divisions, which really came as a result of the younger Westies decision to traffic in a drug that was very big in the 80s, which was cocaine. The older Westies are against it, for fear that it might land people in jail or cause them to rat on others. That’s a side plot that occurs throughout the season, as well as the Westies conflict with John Gotti [Hamish Allan-Headley] and the Gambino crime family, which at the time was led by a guy named Paul Castellano. Eventually, John Gotti took over the Gambino crime family, but that’s stuff for Season 2.”

What this means for viewers is that they should not become too attached to these characters because anyone can be taken down at any time. Brancato wants fans to know that he hopes all of their favorites will survive; however, that’s not the reality of this world.

“There is a body count on the show. There are people who drop, but hopefully, when that happens, it’ll feel to the viewer like it’s absolutely appropriate and dictated by the circumstances of the plot,” said Brancato.

Working on period dramas for TV is what Brancato is best known for. Before his work on The Westies, he was behind the hit Netflix series Narcos and its spinoff Narcos: Mexico, the Forest Whitaker-led MGM+ series Godfather of Harlem, and, most recently, the Miami-set Hotel Cocaine, starring Danny Pino, also for MGM+.

“I was around in New York City in the 80s, so I remember it vividly. The challenge for the show was, how do you replicate 1980 New York City when you’re shooting in Toronto? What we determined was that it was going to be very difficult to shoot on the streets of Toronto and have it look anything like 1980 New York, so we built a 240-foot New York street that is absolutely authentic to the era. We built that exterior at our stages, so we film a lot of the show out on a big outdoor set,” said Brancato.

He continued, “With the visual effects we used, we managed to create a real sense of time and place that I think viewers are really going to appreciate. They’re put into this time capsule of a period that was like no other; it was the go-go 80s in New York. It was Donald Trump. It was madness.”

While it was the era of Trump, don’t expect to see anyone playing him in Season 1.

“No, we decided to leave him out. He gets enough press,” Broncato said with a laugh.

More photos can be found below.