- Dutton Ranch showrunner Chad Feehan is leaving Yellowstone spinoff three weeks before the show’s launch
- Reports suggest that Taylor Sheridan “wasn’t happy,” clashing with the lead role
- Season 2 has not been confirmed by Paramount+ at the time of writing
Just weeks before Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch launches on Paramount+ on May 15, there’s a problem.
A TV Line report confirmed “alleged friction behind the scenes with series stars Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly, as well as ‘other key players’.”
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Puck News went on to expand on this further, adding, “Feehan finished
first season, but has been told he won’t be returning for the second, according to three sources. (I think the feeling was mutual, and that Feehan probably would have bailed anyway.)
“This was less of a purely creative issue, I’m told — the scripts were good, and after some work on the cut, Paramount is confident about the show — and more about how Feehan ran the production.”
It continues: “He bumped into stars Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly and other key players on set, many of whom have worked on Yellowstone for nearly a decade. Sheridan, producer David Glasser and the stars weren’t happy, so Feehan is out, and Sheridan and Glasser will likely elevate another Season 1 writer to the showrunner gig.”
However, it’s this last part, speculating that Sheridan will promote an existing writer to showrunner status, that I’m most interested in.
Opinion: Taylor Sheridan should be the sole showrunner of Yellowstone spinoffs like Dutton Ranch
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If you have been following along with others Yellowstone spinoff Marshalswould you know fans haven’t been overwhelmingly happy there either.
After Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) leaves his ranch life to join an elite unit of US Marshals, viewers quickly complained that Marshals took a piece out of Yellowstone‘s story and turned it into a formal CBS police procedural.
Though Marshals has already been renewed for a second season — and I suppose Dutton Ranch will all too purely down to the amount of fan appetite – I think both spinoffs are underwhelming early proof that Sheridan can’t afford to go too far.
While he has been the showrunner for other hit series like Lioness, Farmer and most recently, Madisonhe is only an executive producer on the two Yellowstone spinoffs.
On previous Yellowstone spinoffs 1883 and 1923Sheridan served as their creator, writer and producer (and in the case of 1883its director). The difference? Both shows were highly praised and fans think as much of the main series as the main series.
To make a direct Yellowstone Spin-off that didn’t involve Sheridan in any immediate capacity was always going to be a risk… and that risk already seems to be coming back to bite Paramount.
My advice? To get Dutton Ranch where it needs to be and confirm season 2, Sheridan should either drop some of his many creative projects altogether (e.g. Call of Duty movies) or let go of his commitment to his stand-alone shows.
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