Kevin Costneris basically synonymous with Westerns these days, and with good reason. He was the star of Yellowstone, the biggest Western hit on television in decades. He poured his own money into Horizon: An American Saga, for better or worse, and he’s never far away from a stetson or a horse. But that reputation was cemented with his 181-minute epic, which brought Hollywood to its feet in rapturous applause. The only problem is that it’s about to leave streaming.
Dances with Wolves is leaving Prime Video on May 31, so you’d best saddle up if you want to see the award-winning behemoth in time. The film follows Lieutenant John J. Dunbar, a Union Army officer who requests a remote post on the American frontier after the Civil War. Isolated from his own military and surrounded by unfamiliar land, Dunbar forms a bond with a nearby Lakota community, which forces him into questioning where he came from and the violence that moves west with it.
Dances with Wolves stars Costner (Field of Dreams) as Lieutenant John J. Dunbar, Mary McDonnell (Independence Day) as Stands With A Fist, a white woman raised by the Lakota; Graham Greene (Wind River) as Kicking Bird, a Lakota medicine man; Rodney A. Grant (Geronimo: An American Legend) as Wind In His Hair, a proud Lakota warrior; Floyd Red Crow Westerman (Hidalgo) as Ten Bears, the tribe’s respected chief; Tantoo Cardinal (Killers of the Flower Moon) as Black Shawl, Kicking Bird’s wife; Robert Pastorelli (Eraser) as Timmons, the wagon driver who takes Dunbar west; Charles Rocket (Hocus Pocus) as Lieutenant Elgin, a Union Army officer; and Maury Chaykin (My Cousin Vinny) as Major Fambrough, the officer who sends Dunbar to his post.
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Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
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⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
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01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
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02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
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03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
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04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
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05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
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06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
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07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
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08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
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09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
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10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
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Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
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🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
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You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
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You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
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Was ‘Dances With Wolves’ Successful?
It’s hard to overstate just how much of a success. Prepare yourself for these numbers, because it grossed about $424 million worldwide against a reported budget of around $19–22 million, which is an enormous return. That’s 22 times its production budget, so, financially alone, it’s an absolute game-changer. It was also a major awards success. Dances with Wolves earned 12 Oscar nominations and won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Costner. All of this, and it was his directorial debut on a feature film. An astonishing achievement. Now, admittedly, it has been reassessed over the years, especially around its portrayal of Native American culture, but nobody can deny just how big a hit this was.
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