Sorry, but Taylor Sheridan Is to Blame for Ruining His Chaotic Yellowstone Franchise Himself
Sheridan’s Yellowstone and 1923 finales went down the drain after an extremely successful start, but that could have been easily avoided. Here’s what went wrong and what the director has to do with it.
Taylor Sheridan’s TV shows have long remained Paramount+’s pride and joy, but things weren’t all that positive once Yellowstone’s prequel series 1923 wrapped up several weeks ago.
Everyone’s praise for the writer-director suddenly gave its place to waves of criticism, with fans slamming Sheridan for completely ruining the initially promising story with a dreadful ending.
Some leaked details about Sheridan’s actual involvement in the production process made it all even worse, and now it seems like he just got what he deserved — especially since Sheridan’s initial plan for his shows would bring him no trouble at all.
Taylor Sheridan Wasn’t Supposed to Be the Only Writer for Yellowstone and Prequels
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It might not be something completely new to the long-standing fans of Sheridan’s numerous TV series, but it makes perfect sense only now that his projects are suddenly under fire.
Initially, Sheridan was determined to make things right by getting himself a writers’ room and giving them the most of the work, leaving for himself only a small part.
“[I thought] I would write, cast and direct the pilots, and then we would bring in someone as a showrunner to run a writers room and I could check in and guide them. That plan failed…There were some things that none of us foresaw”, Sheridan revealed in an interview with IndieWire back in 2023.
He also explained it by the fact that other writers could have potentially taken the story into a completely different direction, which is not what Sheridan wanted to be done with his own projects.
“But when you hire a room that may not be motivated by those same qualities — and a writer always wants to take ownership of something they’re writing — and I give this directive and they’re not feeling it, then they’re going to come up with their own qualities. So for me, writers rooms, they haven’t worked”, he added.
1923 Collapsed Because Taylor Sheridan Wasn’t Even There to Save It
The director’s second prequel series to Yellowstone concluded earlier this month, but all the talks about Sheridan’s astonishing level of indifference towards his own project haven’t died down ever since.
As it turned out, Sheridan wasn’t that much on the set of both 1883 and 1923, giving the whole control over the production to his co-director Ben Richardson.
This was even confirmed by 1883’s actor Jerome Patrick Flynn who in an interview with Radio Times admitted that “Taylor’s so busy working on the plethora of other stuff that’s coming through him. No, we never saw him on set.”
