[3] In 2015, while on production of American Honey, Riley Keough befriended two extras, Franklin Sioux Bob and Bill Reddy, while filming in South Dakota and later introduced them to her best friend Gina Gammell.

[4] Over the course of several years, the project began to take shape, through writing workshops, improvisation sessions, and meeting hundreds of locals in the community, to make the story authentic.

[5][6] The group began discussing an idea for a film revolving around two indigenous locals growing up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The website's consensus reads: "With subtlety and authenticity, War Pony tracks the lives of two young Indigenous men and cements the two women behind the lens, Riley Keough and Gina Gammell, as talents to watch.

"[15] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.