‘Yellowstone’: Taylor Sheridan Directs Supersized Season Finale (Exclusive)
Taylor Sheridan stepped behind the camera for what may be the final episode of Yellowstone.
The co-creator and writer of the hit Paramount Network series directed the final episode of season 5B that airs on Sunday, The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively reveal. The sixth and final installment in the season is being described as a special season finale event and airs at 8 p.m. on Paramount Network.
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The Dec. 15 episode will also be supersized, running one hour and 26 minutes. Titled, “Life Is A Promise,” the logline for the Sheridan-penned ending reads, “The fate of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch is revealed.”
Sheridan, who writes all episodes in the series, directed the entire first season of Yellowstone, which launched in 2018. Since then, he has directed many episodes within his stable of Sheridan-verse series for Paramount+, including Mayor of Kingstown, Yellowstone prequel 1883, Lioness and Landman, the latter which is currently airing its debut season. He made his debut as writer/director with his critically acclaimed 2017 film Wind River.
Executive producer Christina Voros directed the first four episodes of Yellowstone‘s season 5B, and executive producer Michael Friedman helmed last week’s penultimate episode that saw Sheridan showcasing another hat that he wears on the series: acting.
Throughout Yellowstone‘s run, Sheridan has recurred onscreen as Texas horse trainer Travis Wheatley. Last week’s episode, “Give the World Away,” caught up with Travis at his Texas Ranch, which was filmed at the Sheridan-owned Bosque Ranch. The real-life cowboy showed off his riding skills — as well as his strip poker skills, with his girlfriend played by Bella Hadid. (Sheridan owns two Texas ranches, also including the Four Sixes Ranch, another location where Yellowstone films.)
All roads have led to next week’s finale “Life Is A Promise,” as the flagship series in the larger Yellowstone-verse prepares to — maybe — ride off into the sunset. After a long break between the first half (5A) and second half (5B) of season five due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes and the scheduling dispute with star Kevin Costner that eventually led to his exit from the show, Paramount Network announced that Yellowstone season 5B would be the final season in the series. However since then, fan-favorite stars Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser — who play Beth Dutton and Rip, respectively — have been in talks to continue the show’s legacy within the Yellowstone-verse; with new reports indicating a spinoff.
Reilly and Hauser have expressed their interest in following Sheridan wherever his pen takes them. “We’ll see by the end if they want it,” Reilly told THR at the start of this season about the audience determining the show’s fate. “Because they might want to just wrap it up and finish it, so we’ll see. It has to be authentic.”
After revealing the fate around Costner’s patriarch character John Dutton right out of the gate in the season 5B premiere (here’s how the show handled his exit), Yellowstone‘s record-setting return has continued to pull in big audiences heading into the finale.
With the Yellowstone-verse mastermind stepping behind the camera for the anticipated conclusion, the stakes are even higher around how the series will go out, and if the ending will pave way for a future.
“I was surprised and I didn’t see it coming,” Voros told THR about the finale when discussing last week’s penultimate episode. “I think the conclusion to any great story is both surprising and inevitable, but you don’t realize it was inevitable until you get there. It all makes sense looking backward. But looking forward, you never would have seen it coming. That’s the magic place in storytelling and I think Taylor has done that with the finale.”
No matter what happens in the end, Sheridan’s Yellowstone-verse continues to race ahead, with spinoff series The Madison, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, currently in production and prequel 1923 set to return with its second season Feb. 23. A second prequel spinoff set in 1944 will follow in the footsteps of 1883 and 1923, though details are scarce around that series.
Yellowstone‘s season 5B finale airs Sunday at 8 p.m. on Paramount Network. (Here’s how to stream Yellowstone and here’s a status update on the franchise.)
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