On future show creations, Sheridan will likely write the pilot and second episode along with the bible for each show, and lean on the team of writers and directors accumulated through Yellowstone.
It’s not like he had a drawer full of scripts, awaiting his break. Sheridan hustled to make a living as a working actor on series including Sons of Anarchy and Walker, Texas Ranger before he quit as he neared 40 and grew tired of seeing his name descend on the call sheet, realizing he might not be able to support his family on that paycheck. So he began writing screenplays, furiously, basically trying not to repeat the plotting mistakes and clichés he would see in the scripts he had acted in over the course of his career. It didn’t take him long: Sheridan’s first produced script was the Denis Villenueve-directed Sicario (he later wrote its sequel Soldado), followed by Hell or High Water, Wind River (his directing debut) and most recently Those Who Wish Me Dead. The dramas share a strong sense of frontier justice, and the blurred line between good and evil. Those themes lent themselves perfectly to Yellowstone, which he created with John Linson. That script was good enough to draw Kevin Costner to a rare series foray, playing Dutton family patriarch John Dutton. Now, 1883 drew Oscar-nominated Sam Elliott, and country singing stars McGraw and Hill to play the Duttons who staked claim to the ranch. 101’s Glasser said that Sheridan is making the most of his second act as writer-director, and has proven a deep wellspring for ideas that lend themselves to episodic drama series as well as they did movies.
“When Taylor creates, in his mind he can take you down a rabbit hole with 15 layers deep on the lineage of a story, something I’ve never seen another creator do,” Glasser told Deadline. “Ask him a question about a character, he’ll take you back 10 or 30 years. That’s what happened here with 1883. Taylor was thinking about the story of the Duttons and their journey. He’s played with flashbacks before on Yellowstone, like with Rip (Cole Hauser) as a young boy. Most of his characters had flashbacks because that is how Taylor thinks. If you had a conversation with him on set about it, long before he came up with this idea, he would tell you the Dutton story, and you would be mesmerized enough to say, ‘Well why are we not making that?’ We’re sitting here making this incredible television show in Yellowstone, but what you’re telling me is absolutely magic. It seemed organic for him to sit down and start at the beginning.”
The third season of Yellowstone left off with John Dutton shot on the side of the road, daughter Beth (Kelly Reilly) not visible as the storefront of her office firebomb exploded into the street, and son Kayce (Luke Grimes) flipping over his desk and trading gunfire with killer mercenaries. The family’s late-1800s journey to claim that vast Montana land they fight to maintain is fraught with peril of a different kind.
“[Taylor] created this show about this amazing family, and now it just seemed natural and organic to start with the Duttons as they made their journey across America,” Glasser said. “What’s beautiful about the story is, it’s a time we’ve forgotten, what a family would do to find a place to settle, and the risks and trials and tribulations of what people went through. These are real struggles, about people dying along the way, in search of a better future for their families. The core of the story is always family, and you see the innocent perspective of the daughter Elsa, and through Faith’s eyes, and through the eyes of the father, played by Tim, and this incredible character Shea, played by Sam Elliott. He’s seen it all and might be on his last journey. There is something that happens that explains each character’s reason for leaving to build a new life. The world Taylor has created is magic.
