Why Did Charlie Sheen Have Such a Small Role in Young Guns? The Real Story Behind His Death, Emilio, and the Family Drama

If you’ve ever watched Young Guns, you probably noticed Charlie Sheen shows up, acts super serious for a little while... and then gets shot dead pretty early.
It feels weird, right? I mean, this is Charlie freaking Sheen — the dude was already huge from movies like Platoon and Wall Street. So why the short screen time?

Turns out, it was all part of the plan.

Charlie plays Dick Brewer, who in real life was actually the leader of Billy the Kid’s gang — The Regulators — before Billy took over.
In the movie, Brewer is trying to keep the group together and stay professional, but once he’s killed during a shootout (in a really sudden and brutal way), the whole gang starts to fall apart and go wild under Billy.
So in a lot of ways, Brewer’s death is a turning point. It wasn’t random. It showed the beginning of the chaos that Billy the Kid would bring.

But here's where it gets even more interesting:
Charlie didn’t HAVE to take a small role.
He chose to.

At the time, Charlie Sheen was already a huge star, way bigger than most of the other cast. He could’ve easily demanded to be the main character.
But instead, he agreed to take a backseat because he wanted to support his brother, Emilio Estevez, who was playing Billy the Kid.
This movie was really meant to be Emilio’s show, and Charlie was cool with that.
In fact, it was Charlie’s star power that helped get the movie made in the first place — studios were a lot more interested once they knew he was involved, even if it was a smaller role.

During filming, Charlie and Emilio had a pretty classic "brothers on set" relationship.
They competed a little, of course — who wouldn’t? Charlie had been coming off serious Oscar-level stuff, while Emilio was trying to prove himself as a real leading man.
There was some playful tension about who was cooler or tougher in front of the camera, but they genuinely supported each other.
At one point, it’s said they even bet on who could get through their scenes with fewer takes — and Emilio apparently won a few rounds, which drove Charlie crazy in a good-natured way.

As for their relationship now?

Charlie and Emilio are still very close, even after all the crazy stuff Charlie went through in the 2010s.
Both of them have talked in interviews about how much respect they have for each other.
And their dad, Martin Sheen, has always been a huge influence on both of them.
When Charlie was going through his roughest times, Emilio and Martin were two of the few people who stuck by him without enabling the bad behavior.
Nowadays, Emilio focuses more on directing and low-key projects, and Charlie seems a lot more grounded than he was during his wildest years.

Basically — the Sheen/Estevez family is tight.
They've had plenty of drama, but they always circle back to family first.