When Taylor Sheridan’s "1883" was heading for a second season, a problem arose. Many of the main characters were dead.
The even bigger problem? Studio executives apparently didn’t know it.
“I know they read the scripts, but they don’t read scripts, so when they read the last episode of "1883," I don’t think they digested what had just happened, even though I made it quite clear from the very beginning,” Sheridan told Deadline last week.
“The story I heard is Bob Bakish [Paramount Global CEO] watched it and said, ‘Wait a minute, she dies! They all die? What do we do in season two?’ I said, ‘There is no season two.’”
Bakish, in Sheridan’s telling, said there better be one because the studio “already picked it up.”
Paramount+ had already greenlit the second season of "1883," a spinoff of "Yellowstone." But key characters, including those played by Sam Elliott and Isabel May, were knocked off in the season finale.
It was a miscommunication, but it’s also the reality of settlers who headed west in the 1800s. In "1883," the Dutton family history is laid out as its members leave Texas for Montana. As anyone who’s played The Pioneer Trail simulation video game can attest, frontier settlers die at a high rate.
Studio execs met with Sheridan and asked him to pick up with season two as if the deaths had never happened. Instead, Sheridan offered up another spinoff, which fast forwards the Dutton family legacy 40 years. "1923" premiered earlier this month.
Sheridan, who’s living the ranch life near Weatherford, Texas, told Deadline that he wasn’t sure how to write the next season of "1883." Topics including World War I and the 1918 flu pandemic struck him as potential plot points. They eventually spawned his pitch for what became "1923." (It was originally titled "1932.")
“It’s the one great thing about the Dutton family; you can skip generations and put them in all these unique situations, and it has nothing to do with "Yellowstone," nothing to do with "1883" and yet it’s tethered completely to them, but they’re all standalones,” Sheridan said. “That’s what I find so intriguing about it.”
Sheridan’s "1883" narrative isn’t complete. "1883: The Bass Reaves Story" is on the way, but its release date is not yet known.
The limited series follows the story of Bass Reeves, a real U.S. Deputy Marshal in the 1880s. David Oyelowo will play Reeves, whose jurisdiction covered what is now Arkansas and Oklahoma.
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