HBO Made a Serious Mistake Passing on ‘Yellowstone’ and the Hollywood Legend Set To Lead Before Kevin Costner

Before Yellowstone was the Paramount Network’s flagship brand and Kevin Costner the face that drew in audiences from around the world, Taylor Sheridan‘s initial plans for the contemporary horse opera were quite different. Well, not the basic premise of the Dutton family battling those creeping in on their land, but rather the names and faces involved. Perhaps the biggest difference was that Sheridan originally had HBO in mind as Yellowstone‘s home network, and wanted none other than Robert Redford to lead the series from the beginning. Considering how the show played out, HBO should never have let this one go.

Taylor Sheridan Originally Sold ‘Yellowstone’ to HBO With Robert Redford Set To Lead

When Taylor Sheridan first began writing Yellowstone back in 2013, as reported by The Missoulian, his desire was to film somewhere other than Los Angeles. After spending a considerable amount of time working in LA on shows like Veronica Mars and Sons of Anarchy, Sheridan was not only fed up with the world of acting (though he’d never leave it behind completely), but he was fed up with the City of Angels as a whole — and we can’t really blame him. He dreamed of filming in a place outside of Hollywood, and having grown up in Texas and spent time in the mountain states, he knew it had to be the American West. But in order to make that happen, the budding screenwriter knew that he needed to get a big network involved that could foot the bill. Well, it wasn’t long before Sheridan sold the idea for Yellowstone to HBO, which worked with him to develop the project into something the network could use. The only thing was, the executives over at the cable network wanted Robert Redford to play John Dutton rather than Sheridan’s suggestion of Kevin Costner. “They said, ‘If you can get us Robert Redford, we’ll greenlight the pilot,'” Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter years later.

It wasn’t long before the determined Sheridan secured Redford (who “retired” from acting after starring in The Old Man and the Gun in 2018), and it seemed as if Yellowstone was finally going somewhere. But what HBO didn’t tell Sheridan up front was that they didn’t really want to make the show. According to Sheridan, one HBO executive told him that the concept felt far too “Middle America” to the network, which wanted to be “avant-garde trendsetters.” To further emphasize the point, the HBO rep reportedly added that, “Frankly, I’ve got to be honest, I don’t think anyone should be living out there [rural Montana]. It should be a park or something.” Ironically, Sheridan would repurpose those very words in the show, spoken by Michaela Conlin‘s Sarah Nguyen to Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), ultimately leading to her death at his hands.

Over a decade after the network revamped the Western for modern audiences with Deadwood, HBO passed completely on Yellowstone. With HBO behind it from the get-go, the neo-Western giant could have amassed a following as large as Game of Thrones right out of the gate. An HBO Yellowstone practically sells itself, especially when you consider that Robert Redford would have been the show’s leading man. Aside from HBO’s own success with Deadwood and later Westworld, Showtime once aired Dead Man’s Gun, while FX was known for Justified, and A&E amassed its biggest scripted hit with Longmire. It’s easy to see how the Western series would fit into the network’s vast catalog of prestige TV hits. Instead of becoming a hit over the course of several years, Yellowstone may have been one right out of the gate on HBO.

Robert Redford Would’ve Changed ‘Yellowstone’s Entire Brand

Perhaps the biggest misfire of this whole debacle was that HBO actively passed on Robert Redford. After telling the network that he had convinced the Hollywood icon to saddle up for the project, they asserted that they meant they were looking for a “Robert Redford type.” But considering Redford has a strong presence within the Western, had has even played parts in contemporary Western settings (such as the highly underrated An Unfinished Life), passing on the star is insane. Could you imagine Redford as John Dutton? Not to speak ill of Kevin Costner (who did a phenomenal job in the role and really made it his own), but Redford as the Dutton patriarch would have been superb. His gruff charisma and intense appearance would have lent themselves perfectly to Sheridan’s vision of the modern American West, and no doubt would have surprised audiences with what he’s capable of. Not that we didn’t already know.

But more than that, a Robert Redford-led Yellowstone also may have brought in an even larger audience than the show has now. Many who remember and hold onto Redford from his more youthful days as the Sundance Kid or Jeremiah Johnson would’ve flocked to HBO to see where the famed Western hero was going next. It’s been some time since he’d appeared in a distinctly Western project — with the aforementioned An Unfinished Life and The Horse Whisperer a few years prior being the last two to fit the bill — not to mention television. Yellowstone would’ve marked Redford’s first time in a “small screen” role since the 1960s, which itself would have been an event the network could have celebrated. By the time HBO passed on the show, Redford was no longer involved in the project, and Sheridan’s first choice in Kevin Costner was pursued instead.

HBO Missed Out on a Massive Western Franchise, but It Worked Out for Paramount

In his THR interview, Sheridan notes that HBO’s Michael Lombardo (who reportedly believed in the show’s promise) got the filmmaker the rights back to the project before he left the network, which is highly unusual for the cable giant since HBO holds even its undeveloped scripts close to the chest. It was a serious mistake for HBO to let Yellowstone go, if not because the show almost single-handedly established the Paramount Network’s credibility as an actual prestige TV outlet, one that pulls from both sides of the geopolitical aisle and has continued to prop Sheridan up. With various spin-off productions and a highly devoted fanbase, it’s easy to see why Sheridan’s vision drew in so many.

There’s no doubt that the folks over at HBO are kicking themselves. Although they did bring back Deadwood in 2019 for a feature film revival, they let slip their hold on the Western reins long ago. It worked out for Redford in the end, too, though. Had he been too busy with Yellowstone, the hit AMC series Dark Winds (which, in turn, benefited from Yellowstone‘s success) may not have gotten off the ground. Ultimately, Sheridan got to tell his story his way, something that may not have been true at HBO.