"Yellowstone" creator Taylor Sheridan is the Western whisperer of today's TV landscape, with an ever-expanding universe of cowboys and lawmen populating our screens. But the Oscar-nominated writer-director said his flagship series is the "punk rock" version of his storytelling taste, which matured with the epic prequel "1883."
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Sheridan appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast on Jan. 4, where the podcast host and comedian praised his so-called Dutton-verse. Since its 2018 debut, "Yellowstone" has led to multiple spinoff series, including two prequels. "1883," led by Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, premiered in 2021. In 2022, Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren led another Dutton story, "1923."
"'Yellowstone' is f****** great, but '1923' is better. But '1883'... holy s***," Rogan gushed. "I don't think anybody has ever nailed that time period like you did."
"1883" is a gorgeous wagon train epic with stunning lead performances. Sam Elliott won a SAG Award for Best Actor for his emotional performance as a grieving Civil War veteran leading European immigrants through the Oregon Trail.
"'Yellowstone' is the punk rock me," said Sheridan. "It has no plot, really. You know: 'Don't take my land, I want your land.' And in that, I have a lot of opportunities to poke fun, but also kind of point out different points of view and really study a way of life and a world. But there's a lot of defiance in the way that I do it."
Sheridan added: "It's not surprising the critics hate ["Yellowstone"] ... They can't get their heads around it. The New York Times has done multiple, multiple articles where they're doing like this essay on 'How is this s*** so popular?'"
He went on to cite "1883" as a more mature, sweeping look at American history — and a different artistic exercise than "Yellowstone" altogether.
"'1883' was me growing up. Hey, let's take a look back at history. Let's look at us, and who 'us' is as far as the Europeans who settled this place. And let's not argue about whether they should or shouldn't have. Let's just look at the hell they went through to do it."
