Taylor Sheridan Originally Had a 5-year Plan for ‘Yellowstone’ — What Does That Mean for Season 6?
Taylor Sheridan pitched Yellowstone to the Paramount Network back in 2017 with a five-year plan in mind. He already had Kevin Costner on board to lead the series as fifth-generation rancher John Dutton. And he made it clear to executives that the neo-western was going to be expensive.
Fast forward more than five years later, and Sheridan’s Yellowstone is in the middle of season 5 as the highest-rated show on television and inching ever closer to the end of the creator’s original plan. What does that mean for Yellowstone Season 6?
Taylor Sheridan rescued ‘Yellowstone’ from development hell at HBO
When Sheridan pitched Yellowstone to Paramount,he had just rescued the project from development hell at HBO where it had sat for years. He wanted the series to be made exactly as he saw it — and he made that clear to executives.
“You’re not ready for this,” Sheridan told them, per The Atlantic. “It’s going to cost $90–$100 million. You’re going to be writing a check for horses that’s $50–$75,000 a week.”
Sheridan also told Paramount execs that they would have no part of the project, with the exception of paying the bills. He also made it clear that he would write and direct every episode, there wouldn’t be a writers’ room, no one would see an outline, and there would be no notes from studio execs.
What does the ‘Yellowstone’ creator’s original 5-year plan mean for season 6?
Sheridan was ultimately able to get the network to agree to a deal for Yellowstone because he already had Costner attached. They were rebranding Spike TV into Paramount Network and were looking for original programming. Buying a series with a two-time Oscar winner attached was a risk they were willing to take.
Back in the summer of 2018 — when the first season of Yellowstone was set to premiere — Sheridan and Costner sat down with Collider for an interview about the then-unknown series. And during the chat, Sheridan revealed he had pitched a five-year plan.
Does that mean the series will end with the season 5 finale? No, it doesn’t. Yellowstone has been so successful that Sheridan signed another deal with Paramount in the summer of 2021 worth more than $200 million. In addition to Yellowstone, he has eight other series in various stages of development or completion. And, he can keep Yellowstone going for as long as he wants.
Taylor Sheridan knows how his hit neo-western will end
Last year, Sheridan told The New York Times that he is already writing to the end of the Yellowstone story that he already has in mind. And that means the show will end sooner rather than later.
“There’s only so much hovering one can do before the story starts to lose its locomotion; you can’t put it in neutral just because it’s successful. It will go as many years as it takes for me to tell the story, but you’re not going to see nine seasons of it. No way,” Sheridan said.
Star Wes Bentley (Jamie Dutton) echoed that sentiment during a recent Yellowstone panel at the Screen Actors Guild headquarters. Per Deadline, Bentley revealed, “He [Sheridan] has said to me, he knows how he wants to end it. That was a while ago. I’m sure he didn’t know how we were going to get there but he knows how.”
Yellowstone will return to Paramount Network this summer for the second half of season 5.
