Taylor Sheridan Reveals How He Saved ‘Yellowstone’ From Disaster Long Before Kevin Costner’s Controversial Exit

Taylor Sheridan is a man who seems to be able to push out hits in his sleep, and in a recent interview with Gold Derby, the writer/director/producer revealed how his Yellowstone franchise almost fell apart when he wasn’t part of the writing team. While it seems impossible to imagine any show bearing Taylor Sheridan’s name finding itself in trouble – outside losing its lead actor perhaps – according to the man himself, that is exactly what happened with Yellowstone when a writer’s room was set up for Season 3 and things began to head south. He said

“Originally it came from just what you said, a sense of 20 years I’ve been held back. What ultimately happened after Wind River, Yellowstone got bought out of turnaround, and they wanted to go into production in four months, and they were trying to introduce me to [writers’] rooms. I’m reading samples, and I just think everyone’s a terrible writer.

I found myself in a situation where I was writing scripts on the weekend to shoot the next week. We tried to put a room together, and there was no time to put a room together. So then I wrote all of Season 2. They did try to hire a room for Season 3, and the scripts were so bad that they called me back while I was directing this movie in New Mexico with Angie [Jolie], and they said, “You’ve got to help us out. The actors won’t go to work. They’re mutinying.” And so I wrote an episode of Yellowstone every Saturday.”

Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Yellowstone’ is About to Get Its First Project Not Written By Its Creator

Until now, the Yellowstone franchise and all of its spinoffs have come directly from the hand of Taylor Sheridan, but in the endless expansion of his universe, it seems that even he cannot be everywhere at once. That has led to sequel series Y: Marshals will be heading to CBS without Sheridan as writer. The series will be focused on Kayce Dutton, played by Luke Grimes, and will take place after the events of Yellowstone’s conclusion.

The series will see Kayce joining an exclusive unit of U.S. Marshals, and seemingly hanging up his cowboy boots and moving on from the legacy of the Yellowstone ranch, which he sold a hefty portion of at the end of the flagship series. The official logline for the spin-off has Kayce “combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy SEAL to bring range justice to Montana, where he and his teammates must balance family, duty, and the high psychological cost that comes with serving as the last line of defense in the region’s war on violence.”

While the series is being written by The Blacklist: Redemption scribe Spencer Hudnut, Sheridan will still be involved as executive producer alongside Grimes. Whether he remains outside the writing of the show, or feels the need to dip in again is something we will need to wait to find out. One thing that seems certain is that if Sheridan sees something he doesn’t like in the series, he will more than likely end up doing overtime to put it right himself.