San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle is set to make his acting debut in Dinosaurs of the Wild West, an eight-part frontier series from Primitive War creator Luke Sparke. The project combines an alternative-history Wild West with dinosaurs and is being financed through Kickstarter, reflecting Sparke’s effort to develop ambitious genre content directly with fans.

Kittle will play an original character with his own dinosaur, alongside Jesse Kove in a villain role, Martin Kove and Rachael Pizzolatto as “The Heiress”. Set in an alternative 1879 where people and dinosaurs built civilisation together, the series features Brontosaurs moving towns, raptors used in battle and pterosaurs ruling the skies; its main heroic roles are still being cast.