Cole Hauser spills the beans on what went wrong with Dutton Ranch
Dutton Ranch was Paramount+'s biggest original launch ever. According to its own stars, it was also made by people figuring it out as they went, without the man who built the franchise.
Cole Hauser has played Rip Wheeler since 2018, all of it under Taylor Sheridan. For Dutton Ranch, the Beth-and-Rip spinoff that premiered May 15 on Paramount+ and Paramount Network, Sheridan stayed off set. Hauser told Film Inside NYC what that was like:
"There were challenges, you know? Not having Taylor there… everything had changed."
— Cole Hauser, to Film Inside NYC
The cast, he said, "had to figure out on our feet how to really perform and tell a story." He called the whole thing "a challenge," and said he's proud of the result and looking forward to doing it again.
That's the polite version. The rest of the cast and the trades have filled in the details.
The year behind the scenes
- April: Creator and showrunner Chad Feehan exits three weeks before the premiere. Puck attributes the split to friction with Hauser, Kelly Reilly and "other key players."
- May 15: The show premieres and draws 12.9 million views in its first seven days, the biggest original series launch in Paramount+ history.
- July: Ed Harris, who plays veterinarian Everett McKinney, tells Variety at a premiere for an unrelated show that he felt "misled" about how central his role would be, and that midway through filming he wanted out.
- July: Deadline reports that replacing Feehan was "largely related" to how Harris' character was underutilized, and that Harris helped choose the new showrunner, SEAL Team creator Benjamin Cavell.
- Season 2: Renewed, with Cavell in charge and Harris reportedly moved "front and center." Production starts early in 2027.
Harris didn't soften any of it:
"Midway through this first season, I was ready to go; I said, 'Get me the f--- out of here,' to tell you the truth."
— Ed Harris, to Variety
He felt "underused and inconsequential," and said he's now being told his character will have more to do. This is a four-time Oscar nominee, on a show that also cast Annette Bening, saying he was mostly standing around.
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What Hauser is really saying
Read Hauser's quotes next to Harris' and the picture is consistent. Yellowstone worked because one person, Sheridan, decided what every character was for. Without him, the stars had to improvise the storytelling, the creator was gone before anyone saw an episode, and the most decorated actor in the cast was asking to be let out of his contract.
Paramount+'s biggest original launch ever lost its showrunner three weeks before the premiere. Its biggest-name actor wanted out halfway through filming.
The fix, so far, points back to the beginning. Reilly told The Hollywood Reporter that Sheridan could be more involved in season 2. Viewers clearly showed up anyway; 12.9 million views says the Dutton name alone can open a show. Whether it can carry a second season without the man who invented it is the experiment season 1 accidentally ran, and Hauser just said, politely, how it went.
Previously we wrote: Who died in Marshals? Every death so far, from a Yellowstone character killed off-screen to the season 2 premiere crash