‘Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter One’ Review: Kevin Costner Gets Thrown From His Horse in Muddled Western Epic
The director stars alongside Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone and Luke Wilson in the opener of a quartet of films about the settlement of the American West.
Kevin Costner in 'Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter One.'
Cannes Film Festival
Kevin Costner has been in the saddle long enough to know the difference between a big-screen feature Western like Dances With Wolves, a miniseries like Hatfields & McCoys or a longform like Yellowstone. All those projects have done well by him and he’s done well by them. His connection to the quintessential Americana genre and the rugged lands it calls home is indubitable. So why is his sprawling new frontier tale, Horizon: An American Saga, such a clumsy slog? It plays like a limited series overhauled as a movie, but more like a hasty rough cut than a release ready for any format.
Running a taxing three hours, this first part of a quartet of films is littered with inessential scenes and characters that go nowhere, taking far too long to connect its messy plot threads. Warner Bros. will release Chapter One in U.S. theaters June 28, with Chapter Two following on August 16 and Chapter Three reportedly going into production. A vigorous montage closes the first part with action-packed snippets from the next installment, adding to the nagging sense that we’re watching episodic TV that lost its way.
What’s most perplexing coming from Costner is the uncomfortably long time the film takes to show sensitivity toward its Indigenous characters. We’re well into Horizon before the perspective on Native resistance is broadened to acknowledge that their murderous attacks on new settlements are a direct response to the occupation of their ancestral lands. It’s very confusing to see a Western in 2024 and find yourself thinking, “Wait, so American Indians are the bad guys again?”
The blustery notes of John Debney’s score over the opening title card announce that we’re about to watch A Work of Great Importance. It begins in Arizona’s San Pedro Valley in 1859, as three surveyors, one of them just a boy, hammer stakes into the ground to mark a plot of riverside land. Two Indigenous kids observing from the rocky hills wonder what the white folks are doing and why they have come. The two adult Native brothers who appear shortly after, Pionsenay (Owen Crow Shoe) and Taklishim (Tatanka Means), are not so much curious as simmering with rage.
Some days later, a solo traveler finds the surveyors’ dead bodies, with feathers laid alongside their corpses as a warning. Those stakes become crosses on their graves.
The action then jumps to Montana Territory, where Lucy (Jena Malone) empties a rifle into James Sykes (Charles Halford), a man who has clearly wronged her, then takes off with their infant son. The dead man’s tough family matriarch (Dale Dickey) sends her two sons, Caleb (Jamie Campbell Bower) and Junior (Job Beavers), to dole out retribution and bring back her grandchild. One is a hotheaded idiot, the other smarter and more controlled, plus he can rock a silver wolf stole.
Meanwhile, back at the river, the new township of Horizon — advertised on widely distributed handbills — has sprung up directly across from those three graves. But any sense of security is instantly erased when Pionsenay and Taklishim lead a deadly ambush. Acting against the advice of their father (Gregory Cruz), an elder of the White Mountain Apache tribe who warns of the inevitable cycle of violence, they kill any settlers unable to get to safety and torch structures that have only just been erected.
In the movie’s most visceral sequence, the tribesmen close in on the home of the Kittredge family. Along with a handful of community members who have gone there for shelter, the father, James (Tim Guinee), and teenage son Nate (the director’s son Hayes Costner) try to hold off the attackers while the mother Frances (Sienna Miller) and daughter Lizzie (Georgia MacPhail) hide out in a hatch under the floorboards.
The flimsiest strand follows Russell (Etienne Kellici), an adolescent boy who manages to outride the Apache horsemen pursuing him, then later wrestles with his conscience about how and against whom to take revenge for his losses. That thread feels like one too many, but it makes the point that white folks regard all Indigenous tribes as a single enemy, meaning payback is indiscriminate.
Working from a discursive screenplay he co-wrote with Jon Baird, Costner is not at his best as a director with this kind of multi-branched narrative. He struggles to keep all the story’s plates spinning, as characters are sidelined and resurface with too little connective tissue.
It’s almost an hour into the film before Costner appears as Hayes Ellison, a taciturn loner described by one of the Sykes boys as a “saddle tramp.” The role allows Kev to go full Clint, conveying the inner conflict of a troubled man wishing to leave violence behind but skilled enough with a firearm to handle it when provoked. Presumably, the character will reveal more layers and maybe a backstory in Chapter Two.
Hayes is the figure who begins to tie things together when he ambles into a small township and catches the eye of Marigold (Abbey Lee), who turns tricks to get by and babysits for Lucy, now going by Ellen and married to good-natured Walter Childs (Michael Angarano). Marigold is an annoying character — dumb, whiny, opportunistic — and it’s a slight stretch that a man as careworn and solitary as Hayes would be suckered into helping her, putting them both in danger. The unconvincing performance of Lee does nothing to make Marigold more palatable.
Other characters include the cavalry summoned to Horizon after the massacre, dispatched by Colonel Houghton (Danny Huston) and led by Sgt. Major Riordan (Michael Rooker) and First Lieutenant Trent Gephardt (Sam Worthington), who gently strikes up a romance toward the end of the film. Gephardt is the one person patient enough to explain to the folks of Horizon why the Apaches are hostile to the idea of sharing land on which they have hunted for generations.
Despite the harsh conditions and extreme danger involved in the expansion of the West, wagon trains of new settlers keep coming. Traveling with one of them is military captain Matthew Van Weyden (Luke Wilson), who lands the exasperating job of de facto leader, dealing with disputes and ensuring that everyone contributes to the workload. That comes as a surprise to a couple of over-educated but clueless Brits begging to be scalped, Juliette (Ella Hunt) and Hugh (Tom Payne).
Any of these plotlines might have sustained an hour of compelling television but they don’t add up to much in this awkwardly stitched quilt, which rarely provides the space for anyone’s experiences to resonate. That also limits the scope for the actors to breathe much dimensionality into their roles. Dialogue-driven scenes often feel stilted and lifeless; the characters played by Costner, Worthington, Miller and Malone at this point show the most potential.
The subtitle An American Saga and some easy guesswork suggest that as Horizon continues the project will become a broad-canvas picture of frontier life and its challenges, of the constant threat of outlaws and Indigenous attack, and the injustices toward Natives that indelibly stained the soil of the West with blood. Hopefully, it will also acquire some much-needed structure.
In the meantime, the movie serves up handsomely photographed virgin American landscapes, with red cliffs, green valleys and wide open plains providing some arresting backdrops. (As is often the case, Utah locations stand in for various parts of the Southwest and Montana.) Period design elements evoke the milieu more than serviceably.
For many Western lovers of a certain age, Costner in a form-fitting role will be a reassuring presence. He was never an actor with the broadest range, but always appealing — even when he arrives late, as he does here, and remains on the glum side. Just don’t build up your hopes too much.
Dakota Johnson Plays the Field in Trailer for Coming-Out Dramedy ‘Am I OK?’
Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne co-directed the feature that launches on Max next month after premiering at Sundance.
Dakota Johnson and Sonoya Mizuno in 'Am I OK?'
Courtesy of Sundance Institute/Emily Knecht
Dakota Johnson is figuring out what she wants from her dating life after admitting she’s interested in women in the first trailer for Am I OK?
Max announced Monday that the dramedy feature from co-directors Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne is set to launch on the streaming service June 6 after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival in 2022. Sonoya Mizuno, Jermaine Fowler, Kiersey Clemons, Molly Gordon, June Diane Raphael and Notaro round out the cast.
Am I OK? centers on lifelong friends Lucy (Johnson) and Jane (Mizuno) navigating the changes in their paths after Jane plans a move to London, leading Lucy to reveal a secret about herself.
While encouraging Johnson to come out of her shell, Mizuno says in the trailer, “You try 20 different flavors of ice cream before you settle on a single scoop.” This leads Johnson to respond, “Ice cream is different than vagina.”
Notaro and Allynne, who are married in real life, make their feature directorial debut from a script by Lauren Pomerantz. Producers include Johnson, Notaro, Allynne, Pomerantz, Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Erik Feig, Lucy Kitada and Ro Donnelly.
In her review for The Hollywood Reporter, critic Angie Han wrote, “If Am I OK?‘s tone occasionally tilts too far toward comedy (including in an oddly staged climactic confrontation), its laughs land far more often than not, and bring us closer to the characters by inviting us to laugh with them.”
During an interview with THR at the time of Am I OK?’s Sundance premiere, Notaro and Allyne emphasized the importance of the pair working on the film together. Notaro said at the time, “There’s no world where I would’ve gone into a feature without Stephanie.”
Donald Trump Movie ‘The Apprentice’ Shocks Cannes, Receives Nearly Eight-Minute Standing Ovation
"There is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the rising wave of fascism," director Ali Abbasi said when asked why he wanted to make the film about the former president's rise to power in 1980s America. "I think it's time to make movies relevant. It's time to make movies political again."
Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in 'The Apprentice.'
Cannes Film Festival
One of the most anticipated moments of the 77th Cannes Film Festival finally arrived Monday night with the world premiere of the Donald Trump drama The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan as a young version of the real estate mogul in his pre-MAGA days.
Only Francis Ford Coppola’s wildly ambitious swan song Megalopolis had inspired more pre-premiere chatter and curiosity at this year’s edition of the glamorous French film festival. Ahead of its unveiling, virtually no one had seen The Apprentice, as the movie reportedly was finished only days before its premiere.
Ali Abbasi, Stan, Martin Donovan and Maria Bakalova walked the Cannes red carpet for the premiere. Only Jeremy Strong, who plays notorious political fixer Roy Cohn in the film, was not in attendance.
Directed by acclaimed Iranian-Danish filmmaker Abbasi and written by Gabe Sherman, The Apprentice explores Donald Trump’s rise to power in 1980s America under the influence of the firebrand rightwing attorney Roy Cohn. Succession star Strong co-stars as Cohn, along with Martin Donovan (Tenet) as Fred Trump Sr. and Oscar and Golden Globe nominee Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) as Ivana Trump.
Several shocking moments late in the film — a scene depicting Trump’s alleged rape of his first wife Ivana and a surgery room sequence showing Trump getting liposuction — drew audible gasps from the Cannes premiere crowd. As the final credits rolled, the Cannes crowd starting clapping in time to the sound of Baccara’s “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie” playing on the soundtrack.
After the screening, Abbasi warmly hugged his cast members and Cate Blanchett, sitting just in front of the director and crew, was the first to jump up and applaud, embracing Bakalova. The loudest applause was for Stan for his transformative performance as Trump. The crowd enthusiastically cheered and clapped, staying on their feet for nearly eight minutes, though many were spotted ducking out of the theater by the four-minute mark. Abbasi kept the crowd going, applauding and pointing randomly to people in the audience. Abbasi also held up his cell phone to the cameras during the standing ovation to show a shirtless selfie of Strong in costume and seemingly backstage from his play in New York. The moment drew big cheers and Abbasi kissed the screen of his phone.
When addressing the crowd, Abbasi commented on the current world events such as the war in Ukraine and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, explaining how “in the time of turmoil there’s this tendency to look inwards” and “to bury your head deep in the sand and look inside and hope for the best.”
“The storm is not going to get away. The storm is coming. Actually, the worst times are to come,” he added. “But you can pretend it’s not here. You can also deal with it.”
Abbasi then addressed being questioned why he wanted to make a movie centered on Trump and argued that films need to be “relevant” again. He explained, “There is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the rising wave of fascism. There’s only the messy way. There’s only the the banal way. There’s only the way of dealing with this wave on its own terms, at its own level and it’s not going to be pretty, but I think the problem with the world is that the good people have been quiet for too long. So, I think it’s time to make movies relevant. It’s time to make movies political again.”
By Monday night, The Apprentice still didn’t have a U.S. distributor in place, although it sold earlier in the Cannes festival to StudioCanal for the U.K. and Ireland, where it will be released theatrically later this year.
Rocket Science is handling international sales on the project, which was financed by Kinematics, Head Gear Films, Screen Ireland, Film i Vast, the Danish Film Institute and National Bank of Canada.
The movie is produced by Daniel Bekerman for Scythia Films, Jacob Jarek for Profile Pictures, Ruth Treacy and Julianne Forde for Tailored Films and Abbasi and Louis Tisné for Film Institute. Executive producers are Amy Baer, Mark H. Rapaport, Emanuel Nunez, Josh Marks, Grant S. Johnson, Phil Hunt and Compton Ross, Thorsten Schumacher, Niamh Fagan, Sherman, Lee Broda, James Shani, Andrew Frank and Greg Denny.
The End of ‘Yellowstone’? What Is Known About the Season 5B Episodes
Following delays over a scheduling dispute with exiting star Kevin Costner as well as the 2023 writer and actor strikes, the second half of season five finally returns in November.
Kevin Costner, Kelly Reilly and Wes Bentley in 'Yellowstone'
THR Illustration; Images: Paramount Network
When Yellowstone aired its midseason finale back in January 2023, the future was looking ominous for the Dutton family on the fifth season of the Paramount Network mega-hit series. For a refresher, Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) had just thrown down the gauntlet against his sister Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and father John Dutton (Kevin Costner) in a move that would usher in an all-out war between the embittered family members. Will Jamie kill Beth? Or will John kill Jamie first? Those were the high-stakes questions sitting with viewers.
Behind the scenes, a scheduling dispute with Yellowstone star and patriarch Costner ushered in a months-long production delay on the second half of season five. The cast and crew had been planning to resume filming in March 2023 with an announced summer premiere date, but those dates came and went. Not until early May of 2023 would the network announce that Yellowstone was going back into production, but that the remaining episodes — which were then set for a November 2023 debut — would mark an abrupt ending to the beloved neo-Western saga and flagship series. There were, however, new plans to continue the Dutton dynasty (which already counts spinoffs 1923 and 1883 in its stable) with a Yellowstone sequel series that, at the time, was widely reported to star Matthew McConaughey and debut in December 2023.
That announcement, however, came just days after the May 2 writers strike, which would usher in the July 13 SAG-AFTRA strike; the rare 2023 double strike effectively shutting down Hollywood productions and grinding U.S.-produced series — including Yellowstone — to a halt.
The status of the final episodes of Yellowstone were then locked in the barn for months — until the flagship series was given a November 2024 premiere date send-off following the resolution of the strikes and Costner dispute (ultimately leading to his departure being made official). But, don’t worry, the Yellowstone-verse will continue on — the aforementioned sequel series has now been given a new title — The Madison — and a new A-list star to lead and executive produce — Michelle Pfeiffer — and there are also reports that suggest these season 5B episodes may not be the end of the flagship series after all.
Below, The Hollywood Reporter is keeping track of everything as it develops about the series, co-created by Yellowstone-verse boss Taylor Sheridan, as it rides off into the night.
Production was slated for late spring 2024 and, on May 20, the network announced that production had finally begun in Montana on what has been believed to be the final episodes (more on that, below).
Before two of Hollywood’s biggest guilds, WGA and SAG-AFTRA, found themselves in a standoff with the studios, Yellowstone had not yet begun production. The scripts from creator Sheridan, who writes the entire series, were not yet complete. (April to October is when they typically shoot, with snowy Montana winters complicating filming on the heavily outdoor series.) Sheridan began working on the scripts once the writers strike resolved in September 2023.
Now, scripts are complete and filming is underway. An episode count has yet to be confirmed.
Why Did Kevin Costner Exit the Series?
Months before the writers strike was called, reports of Costner wanting to exit the series sent a jolt through the Yellowstone-verse. How could TV’s biggest hit continue without its Oscar-winning lead?
In late March 2023, president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios Chris McCarthy, spoke to those fears when he told The Hollywood Reporterthat Yellowstone “wouldn’t be what it is today without Kevin and we hope that that stays for a long time to come.” Flash forward to May of 2023, when viewers were told that Costner would be staying on the series but that the series is ending. But the still-looming question remained: In what capacity will viewers see John Dutton? (McCarthy later told THR: “This Yellowstone chapter is closing sooner than we all wanted, but we feel good with where it’s going to end.”)
In late June 2023, Sheridan sat down with THR for a rare cover story where he opened up about the scheduling clash, shedding light on the source of the delay: Costner wanted to focus on his own Western epic, a four-movie passion project titled Horizon that he co-wrote, directed and starred in (and went on to premiere at 2024 Cannes in May 2024; the first film hit theaters June 2024). “He and the network were arguing about when he could be done with Yellowstone. I said, ‘We can certainly work a schedule toward [his preferred exit date],’ which we did,” said the prolific TV hitmaker. “But once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”
Cover story writer James Hibberd had reported that there were ongoing discussions to try to convince Costner to film a few scenes to wrap his character. Sheridan hinted that John Dutton was never going to be around for the very end of the show in his original script. Still, the creator admitted, “I’m disappointed. It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it.”
In early September 2023 during a divorce hearing from wife Christine Baumgartner, Costner went on the record for the first time about the dispute, saying he might take the show to court. Per reports, Costner claimed he’s owed $12 million for the second half of season five after Paramount “walked away” from negotiations. “We tried to negotiate, they offered me less money than previous seasons [and] there were issues with the creative,” he said.
As for whether or not that meant Sheridan would write Costner totally off the series — and deliver him an off-camera fate — media newsletter Puck reported that Sheridan did just that and wrote the post-strike back half of season five without John Dutton. Months later, in April 2024, Costner made his first public comments on his Yellowstone fate, implying that there was still a chance Sheridan could revisit the script while at CinemaCon promoting Horizon: An American Saga. “But that’s Taylor’s thing,” he said. “I said as much to him a while back. I had thoughts how it could happen, but we just have to see.”
But, with Costner still not involved at that late stage with scripts complete and production underway, the writing seemed to be on the wall. When speaking to THR‘s Awards Chatter podcast in May 2024, Costner said that, from his perspective, the scripts for the second-half of season five weren’t ready in time before he had to start on Horizon. “I couldn’t break my word with actors that I made promises with, and a promise I made to myself. It doesn’t matter how much money you throw at me,” he said.
Then in June 2024, Costner all-but confirmed he wasn’t involved — but still left the door slightly ajar. “I would love to go back under the right circumstances I think that all of us want,” he said on the Today. Later telling People he was disappointed that no one came to his defense as this has played out in the press but still, if the script feels right, “I would step into it if I agreed with how it was being done.”
Not until June 20 did Costner finally and officially confirm, after all the speculation, that he has indeed walked away from the role of John Dutton. “After this long year and a half of working on Horizon and doing all the things that that’s required and thinking about Yellowstone, that beloved series that I love, that I know you love, I just realized that I’m not going to be able to continue, season five or into the future,” he said in a video to his social media. “I loved it and I know you loved it, and I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be returning. I love the relationship we’ve been able to develop, and I’ll see you at the movies.”
How Many Episodes Will There Be?
Season 5B will be six episodes, as was initially planned before Sheridan went pencils down in support of the WGA’s efforts. Sheridan, when speaking to THR for the cover story back in 2023, had suggested at the time that he might make more than six. “If I think it takes 10 episodes to wrap it up, they’ll give me 10. It’ll be as long as it needs to be,” he said.
THR spoke to Christina Voros the week ahead of premiere, who directed four of the six episodes, about being one of the gatekeepers who was in the know of the script. “At the beginning, myself and my first AD, Kether Abeles, were the only people who had access to the full scripts; the producers didn’t,” she said of the story penned by Sheridan, which they kept under lock and key by redacting scripts, using code words and filming alt scenes. “There was a whole other layer of prep that went into preparing what people could have to prepare. … For the most part, [the cast] knew the scenes they were in. So if they were in scenes where something happened that needed to be protected, they knew about it. But if they weren’t, about half the cast doesn’t know what happens this season, outside of their own work.”
What Will Yellowstone Look Like Without John Dutton?
Yellowstone has built a sprawling cast of characters whom viewers have come to know and root for across the show’s five seasons. And while the biggest storyline when the show left off was indeed centered around the battle between Beth and Jamie — with Montana Gov. John Dutton squarely putting himself on Beth’s side — the feud certainly set up the possibility that John could be quickly taken to the “train station” (the Dutton code term for where they bury the bodies of their enemies).
When speaking in June after the writers strike but ahead of the actors strike, Bentley told THR he hadn’t talked to Costner and hadn’t yet seen any scripts, but that he had given much thought to how the the fate of the characters might play out.
“Does Jamie go down with John? Does John go down because of Jamie? Does Jamie have a hand in it at all, or does it turn out Jamie tries to protect him? There are so many potential ways he deals with John’s ending,” he said. “We’re at a point where I think everything is possible with the Duttons. It’s so hot and combustible right now that it could blow them all up together. I think the potential for that is real. But I also know that I am always surprised by Taylor and the turns and directions. With the tension and danger right now, it potentially could be either they are all gone, or one of them survives.”
Grimes recently said he understood Costner’s decision to prioritize Horizon, but called it “unfortunate” for the story. “Whatever happened there is unfortunate if it’s changed anything about how the show was going to unfold,” he said. It has previously been reported that Costner wanted to approve his character’s fate in the series, but Sheridan — like most showrunners — doesn’t typically let actors determine how their character’s storylines end.
Are There Clues in the Season 5B Trailer?
The return of Yellowstone is so secretive that not even the cast knows how it’s all going to play out. The show’s stars recently revealed that scripts were redacted so the actors would only know their own lines, eliciting real-time reactions in some cases as they filmed. Given how little has been revealed about the plot and what the show will look like without Costner, some the biggest hints at what to expect came in the newly released, explosive official trailer (below).
Taking many viewers by surprise, Costner very much appears in the first look, both in visuals and in voice over, as he says in what appears to be a conversation with Rip, “Everyone’s forgotten who runs this valley. Time to remind them.” He ends the trailer by saying, “This war is just beginning.”
Dutton family conflict threatens to boil over in the scenes featured, as Beth pushes back (“I can’t do this anymore,” she says, to which Rip replies, “Well, you’re gonna have to, honey. Or we’re gonna lose this place”) and brothers Kayce and Jamie get physical in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene. Olivieri, who plays fixer Sarah Atwood and Jamie’s love interest, also issues Jamie a threat, and gets physical with Beth.
About Dutton’s over-arching presence in the trailer, Voros told THRthat Costner’s character remains integral to the story, no matter what happens to him in the end: “I think the reason people are wondering, “Is he, isn’t he? Where is he, where is he not?” is because he is the patriarch and his presence is an essential component to the story. John Dutton is still central.”
What Is the Future of the Franchise?
The Yellowstone-verse isn’t slowing down. In fact, it’s only ramping up. With the flagship reigning as the most-watched series across cable and broadcast, Paramount Network previously confirmed that two more spinoffs are in the works: The Madison (formerly 2024), a present-day story, and another prequel, 1944, that will follow in the footsteps of 1883 and 1923.
TheMadison will star Michelle Pfeiffer, and it will be the next series to rollout in the Yellowstone universe. When initially titled 2024, the series was described as a sequel that would take place after the events of Yellowstone. With Pfeiffer’s casting announcement (she will also executive produce), here’s how the series was described: “A heartfelt study of grief and human connection following a New York City family in the Madison River valley of central Montana.” Matthew Fox, Patrick J. Adams, Beau Garrett, Elle Chapman, Ben Schnetzer and Amiah Miller round out the cast. Voros, who is directing on the series, teased to THR that The Madison is a different show from Yellowstone, “but a lot of the creative family is the same. It’s a similar setting, but we’re seeing it through a very different perspective.”
A possible sixth season of the flagship series, meanwhile, has also been reported, with Reilly and Hauser in talks to star as the married fan-favorites Beth and Rip. Paramount Network has not commented. In THR‘s premiere week chat, Voros said she didn’t know what the future holds, but that the season 5B episodes were billed as the end during filming. “I think the degree of secrecy that went into it, the vibe was definitely that we were protecting a conclusion. As far as what the future holds? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know,” she said.
The franchise’s second prequel series, 1923, was renewed for a second and final season before the strike and the sequel series was announced to be airing in tandem with the final season of Yellowstone (it remains to be seen if those plans will remain, but the series is currently in production). Sheridan had confirmed to THR that he was planning several more prequels; and 1944 is the first to be confirmed. (The previously announced Four Sixes series, which was set to follow Yellowstone cowboy Jimmy, played by Jefferson White, is on hold.) “I think there will be enough for many more [prequels] — three or four,” he said. “Chris McCarthy trusts me, because I haven’t been wrong yet.”
Where Will the Sequel Series Jump?
The follow-up installment, now titled The Madison, was given a straight-to-series order and will stream on Paramount+ (at some point in the future). Sheridan had hinted in THR‘s cover story that the spinoff — which would be the first to take place after the events of Yellowstone — might lean on an entirely new cast and location, but it has since been announced that the series will continue exploring the Dutton family dynasty with new characters and locations, as well as some existing characters. That has sparked speculation about what other familiar faces will pop up.
There is no official word on which Yellowstone stars will return, but Hauser recently hinted that his Rip and Reilly’s Beth could play a part in the sequel.
Details on 1944 are also scarce at the moment, but the creator had hinted that his approach would be similar to that taken with the prequels, which functioned as stand-alone stories within the generational family tree. “There are lots of places where a way of life that existed for 150 years is slamming against a new way of life, but the challenges are completely different. There are a lot of places you can tell this story,” he said.
James Hibberd contributed to this story.
This story originally posted July 2023 and is updated as news develops.
