Every month, thousands upon thousands of viewers are surely discovering Taylor Sheridan‘s back catalog after checking out one of his blockbuster Paramount+ shows. Sheridan has established himself as one of the leading television writer-producers of his generation, with titles such as Yellowstone, Mayor of Kingstown, Landman, and more recently The Madison. Each of those shows was created at Paramount. He’s now looking at a new creative partnership with NBCUniversal, having severed ties with his current home. Before he hit the stratosphere with Yellowstone, however, Sheridan was an acclaimed writer who conceived a modern trilogy of neo-Westerns.
The trilogy began with Sicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve. The movie remains a cult classic, having grossed approximately $85 million worldwide and received near-unanimous praise. Sheridan also wrote a sequel to Sicario, although he doesn’t count it as part of the spiritually connected trilogy. The second installment, instead, was Hell or High Water, directed by David Mackenzie and starring Jeff Bridges, Chris Pine, Gil Birmingham, and Ben Foster. The movie earned Sheridan an Oscar nomination in the Best Original Screenplay category. It remains his highest-rated work, with a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The third installment of the trilogy is a movie that Sheridan considers to be his directorial debut.
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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
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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
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
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Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
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Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
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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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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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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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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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How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
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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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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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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.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
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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.
🤠 Yellowstone
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🛢️ 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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The Movie Taylor Sheridan Considers His Directorial Debut Has Been Blocked for Some Netflix Users
He once made a low-budget horror movie that he has mostly disowned. Instead, he has stressed that his first film as director was Wind River, starring Marvel Cinematic Universe alums Elizabeth Olsenand Jeremy Renner. The movie followed two investigators looking into crimes against Indigenous peoples; it’s an idea that Sheridan revisited in 1923, one of his Yellowstone prequels. Released in 2017, Wind River holds a “Certified Fresh” 87% score on Rotten Tomatoes, with praise going to Sheridan’s direction and the film’s tone. It grossed approximately $45 million worldwide against a reported budget of $11 million. However, not everyone who wants to check it out will be able to do so this month, as Netflix has made it inaccessible to folks subscribed to its ad-supported tier. What’s On Netflix reports that 59 titles have been blocked this month, mainly because Netflix isn’t allowed to monetize those titles with ads. Sheridan followed Wind River up with the Angelina Jolie-led neo-Western Those Who Wish Me Dead, which debuted day-and-date on HBO Max and in theaters. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
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Release Date
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August 18, 2017
Runtime
107 minutes
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Producers
Basil Iwanyk, Matthew George, Peter Berg, Elizabeth A. Bell, Wayne L. Rogers
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