Lucky Luke: what is the new Disney+ series worth? (critical)

An adaptation with grandiose settings, which embraces its liberties and takes on the appearance of a friendly family western.

Maybe it’s not quite the twilight western they wanted to make. But the creators of this new Lucky Luke clearly took great pleasure in bringing to the screen the adventures of the lonesome cowboy created by Morris.

Almost 20 years after Jean Dujardin, it is Alban Lenoir’s turn to put on the yellow shirt and slip into the skin of a taciturn, not to say dark and worn, Luke. Because the new series, put online this Monday on Disney+ – after a preview at Séries Mania in Lille – takes a big step aside from comics. Or rather a leap forward. The story takes place later. After. When exactly? We don’t know. But one thing is certain: Luke is older, worn out by the Wild West. Rusty too. To the point of no longer being able to shoot faster than his shadow, because of a nasty injury to his right hand. Which doesn’t stop him from going back on a mission to the wild American plains to help an 18-year-old girl find her mother…

The scenario does not lack discoveries. Part buddy movie, part road trip, the series unfolds an adventure in six episodes, rich in encounters: Joe Dalton, Calamity Jane, a judge, an emperor… and a whole bunch of nods to the albums. Thomas Mansuy and Mathieu Leblanc quickly establish their tone, somewhere between pure farce and an old-fashioned western. By summoning the spirit of Goscinny, they deliver a very family-friendly adventure, capable of appealing to both historical fans and newcomers. Total entertainment, which succeeds where James Huth’s film failed in 2009.

Basically, this variation looks more towards Lucky Luke with Terence Hill (1991). A spaghetti western that dreams of Sergio Leone without ever really daring to confront it head-on. We feel that this Luke would like to hold Clint Eastwood’s gaze. But he ends up on the side of those who dig. On the side of Sergio Corbucci. Comedy often takes over, to the detriment of dramatic tension. Luke’s injury even becomes frustrating, by depriving us of the unsheathing hero, while Jerome Niel puts on a hell of a show as Joe Dalton

Constantly torn between the powder and the absurd, the series never chooses and that’s a problem. Without being really funny in the Chabat way (with Asterix), this Luke is also not the solitary gunslinger that we would ultimately want to see. At least decorum is largely an illusion. Filmed on Sergio Leone’s land, in the studio town south of Almería, in Spain, the series is bathed in superb fading light and nestles in the shadow of the Italian western.

Lucky Luke, to be seen from March 23, 2026 on Disney+, then soon unencrypted on France Télévisions.