There's no end in sight for Taylor Sheridan's Dutton-verse.
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Paramount+ has renewed hit Yellowstone prequel 1923 for a second season. The Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren-led series has posted record-breaking numbers so far in its inaugural run. The series premiere, which debuted on the Paramount Network before going exclusively to Paramount+, was the most-watched cable television debut of 2022. In Taylor Sheridan's world, if you build it, they will come.
Harrison Ford as Jacob Dutton in 1923. (James Minchin III/Paramount+)
News of the renewal comes just days before 1923 returns on Feb. 5 for the remainder of its first season. The show's midseason finale dropped on Jan. 8 before going on hiatus — a common practice among Taylor Sheridan series: Yellowstone's explosive midseason finale came thundering in on New Year's Day, with the long-running drama set to gallop back to the airwaves this summer.
1923 stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as Jacob and Cara Dutton, the tough-as-nails ancestors of Kevin Costner's John Dutton on the flagship Yellowstone. Costner won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series last month for his portrayal of the Dutton patriarch.
Set in the early 20th century, 1923 is a period western that follows the Dutton family as they contend with historic drought, pandemics, and the wild abandon of the end of Prohibition.
Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton in 1923. (Emerson Miller/Paramount+ © 2022 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Ford and Mirren's casting seemed to lift Sheridan's massively successful Yellowstone franchise to a whole new level of prestige. Best known as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, Ford has been a global superstar for nearly fifty years. Plus, 1923 gained a celebrated Shakespearean actress and Oscar winner with Mirren's casting. Her portrayal of the tenacious, Ireland-born Cara Dutton stands at the top of the Yellowstone universe's mountain of nuanced female characters.
Mirren sat down for an interview with Wide Open Country last month, where the actress revealed that she and Ford, who last co-starred in 1986's The Mosquito Coast, went into 1923 blind. The ensuing plot twists have been an "adventure."
"When we started the process, when we started filming, I think we had the first three episodes in our hands," said Mirren. "We had no idea what was going to happen after that. So it's been an unfolding adventure for us. I don't know what's in the future for Jacob and Cara; certainly, dark clouds are gathering around them."
1923 marks the second prequel series in the Yellowstone universe, after the Sam Elliott-led 1883 finished up its one-season arc last year. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill starred as 1883's ill-fated James and Margaret Dutton.
The Dutton-verse is ever-expanding, so you might want to get up-to-speed on who's who. Here's a helpful Dutton family tree, covering every member of the Dutton clan across all three shows.
1923 returns for the remainder of its first season Feb. 5 on Paramount+
