For those who might have doubted the staying power of the Yellowstone franchise when the main show ended, the last few months have been a pretty cogent counter-argument. After the massive success of Marshals on Paramount+, we're now getting another spin-off show, and it has its full trailer at last.
Starting on 15 May, Dutton Ranch picks up the story of Rip and Beth Dutton after the end of their time in Yellowstone when the main show wrapped up its storyline. Where Marshals saw Beth's brother Kayce head to pastures new, Dutton Ranch looks like it'll follow a similar template, sending Beth to Texas to fight for a new ranch that she'll buy with her husband.
Of course, this is the world of Yellowstone, so you can't move to a new state and buy a ranch without pretty much immediately running into nefarious new enemies, and it looks like Paramount has recruited two big names to fill that brief. Ed Harris and Annette Benning are brilliant actors, and will play a couple who own a more established ranch nearby.
The trailer makes it clear that they won't take kindly to the arrival of new blood in their area, and it's fairly obvious that conflict is going to spring up one way or another. Harris has form when it comes to playing evil cowboys, given his starring role in Westworld, of course, but it's perhaps more intriguing to see Benning playing a more scheming character than she arguably normally does.
How the show manages to tread new ground will be an interesting question, though. It's arguable that the biggest Yellowstone fans don't necessarily demand huge new tonal shifts and different topics to cover, but the show does look mighty similar to the one that spawned it. A world of ranch disputes and land-grabs seems to hold fascination for millions of viewers still.
We'll know more very soon, of course, since the show is now less than two weeks away. Paramount has left it surprisingly late to give it a full trailer, but that might pay off with a rapid spike in hype.
