The Future of Baby Billy in 'The Righteous Gemstones' Is Totally Unexpected

Now that Season 2 of The Righteous Gemstones is here, many of us have questions about Baby Billy’s future in the series. For those who need a refresher, Baby Billy is the 70-year-old millionaire pastor played by Walton Goggins, and he is quite eccentric. Take away the fact that Walton is nowhere near 70-years-old, Baby Billy is still a funky dude.

So far in Season 2 of The Righteous Gemstones, Baby Billy is nowhere to be seen. When we leave off in the Season 1 finale, Baby Billy runs from the Gemstones and is forced to become a tent evangelist who sells overpriced souvenirs. After his near-death experience, he seems ready to forgive Eli, but is Eli ready to forgive him? Is Baby Billy even in Season 2?

Walton Goggins posted plenty about his upcoming appearances in The Righteous Gemstones Season 2, but HBO has released limited information about what to expect from him in Season 2. So far, his first mention is in a synopsis for Episode 4, “As to How They Might Destroy Him,” which airs on Jan. 23.

In Season 2, Baby Billy “struggles with his own growing family.” What does this mean? Well, by Episode 9, he “faces a chance to embrace fatherhood.” So we can guess that in Baby Billy’s first appearance, he finds out that he’s going to be a father. With whom? That’s still unclear. Although, we can guess that he finds someone in his new life as a poor tent evangelist.

We also know that he does brush up against some of our favorite characters in Season 2. Tiffany tracks him down while he reconnects with someone from the past, so we’re sure that although we haven’t yet seen Baby Billy in this season of The Righteous Gemstones, he’s still going to make a splash.

He may not be the most significant character, but Walton Goggins’ portrayal of Baby Bill is impossible to forget. In speaking with EW, The Righteous Gemstones creator Danny McBride explained his choice to cast Walton.

“As soon as we sold this, I had the idea for Baby Billy and I wanted it to be Walton,” he revealed. “I basically told him to let me write these episodes and I’ll send them to you to give them a read, and he got it and thought it was funny. He was just worried whether he’d be able to pull it off."

Other than The Righteous Gemstones, Walton is both a major comedic and dramatic actor. He talks about working with Danny and Quentin Tarantino with the same reverence.

“Those are two people and environments that allow for magical things to happen,” he explained. “It’s sublime for me as an artist,” he said. He’s popular for his role as Lee Russell in Danny’s Vice Principals, as well as Sheriff Chris Mannix in Quentin’s The Hateful Eight.

For now, we’ll have to settle for binging Walton’s past projects and waiting for his future appearances in The Righteous Gemstones.

New episodes of The Righteous Gemstones air every Sunday at 10 p.m. EST on HBO.