In June 2018 , modern - dayWesternYellowstonedebuted on the Paramount web as the web ’s first original scripted show . cobalt - created byHell or High Waterscreenwriter Taylor Sheridan , Yellowstonefollows the Dutton family , owners of the gravid ranch in Montana : the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch . Kevin Costner trifle family patriarch John Dutton III , who turn tail the business with his only daughter , Beth ( Kelly Reilly ) , and his two sons , Kayce ( Luke Grimes ) and Jamie ( Wes Bentley ) . CBS Sunday Morning report the show as “ BonanzameetsThe Godfather . ”
The show was n’t an straightaway bang , but all that changed during the pandemic , when new looker began tune in in record numbers . During the2021 - 2022 television time of year , Yellowstoneranked as the No . 1 non - football show on video — which is an impressive feat for any serial , let alone one that airs on basic cable .
Yellowstonehas demonstrate so successful that in 2021 it found a prequel series,1883 , star Sam Elliott , Tim McGraw , and Faith Hill.1923 , a twist - off starring Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford , will premiere is December , with another serial publication — the present - 24-hour interval - set6666 — coming in 2023 .
Whether you ’re aYellowstonenewcomer or already deeply entrenched in its fifth season , here are 15 wild fact about the serial publication .
1. Initially, no one in Hollywood was interested in producingYellowstone.
When Sheridan examine to deal his Western to Hollywood , he received pushback because nobody require to make a Western . “ Anytime that Hollywood says a literary genre is dead , it ’s because they made a crew of bad moving picture about it , ” Sheridan toldCBS Sunday Morning .
But Chris McCarthy , Paramount web President and CEO of MTV Entertainment , view it in a different way . “ masses think of Westerns as good guys and bad guys , and this is really such a unlike show , ” McCarthy say . “ I ’ve been in television intimately 20 years , and there ’s very few times where my 18 - yr - old nieceandmy 80 - twelvemonth - old aunt take me about that same show . And this was one of those moments . ”
2. The show is about family.
Part of the appeal ofYellowstoneis the catholicity of its master stem : family . “ It explores the very essence of kinsfolk , and how the actions of one member can alter the row of generations , ” Sheridan toldDeadline .
3.UnforgivenandDances With Wolveswere major influences.
Sheridan toldVarietythat writers likeCormac McCarthy , Larry McMurtry , andToni Morrisonwrote about theme he was interested in . “ In terms of the picture show that mold me , it was watchingUnforgivenwhen I was in my former teens or very former mid-twenties , ” he say . “ The same withDances With Friedrich August Wolf , where you ’re looking at the Western musical style through a whole young electron lens that had never been explored before . ”
4. Sheridan’s writing attracted Kevin Costner.
Costner — who of naturally produced , directed , and star inDances With Hugo Wolf — knows a matter or two about Westerns . “ I saw that the dialogue had a fun , naturalistic approach to it,”he toldVariety . “ It was raw . It was nonadaptive . And it was set against the backdrop of mountains and river and valley and people on horseback , which is very appealing . ”
5. Costner says Westerns are Shakespearean …
“ It ’s our Shakespeare , really , the Western,”Costner told Parade . “ You love , ‘ Yep ’ does n’t just mean ‘ Yep . ’ It might mean ‘ That ’s the last word I ’m have with you , fella . ’ western are base on lit of how masses lived their life , how they spoke with each other , the danger that was involved with living in an unknown area without the level of protection that we know today in this picky one C . When you make a Western , if you do n’t notice those ability , that native word , and also the random acts of violence that occurred when you ’re out here , then I imagine that ’s why they miss the fall guy more often than they make it . I think Westerns , when they ’re at their good , endue in the speech as much as they do in the gunfight . ”
6. … But Kelly Reilly doesn’t think Beth is like Lady Macbeth.
Throughout the serial , Beth has been the most ruthless yet most traumatize Dutton . She has endured sterilization , try rape , and a mail bomb attack . But Kelly Reilly , who flirt Beth , disagrees with those who have compared her to Lady Macbeth .
“ I talk about Beth as a powerful , dangerous cleaning woman and Lady Macbeth is that , but Lady Macbeth has a bitterness in her,”Reilly told Vulture . “ I ’m not sure Beth has that bitterness . She ’s so animated . I do n’t think it ’s of necessity about retribution , but more , ‘ If you come up against me or anything that I give care about and love , I will destroy you . ’ It ’s more dynamic . It ’s more American . It ’s less sitting in her way , manipulating , thinking of ways she could f**k someone over . And Beth only does that to people she believe merit it . ”
7. The landscape plays an important role.
Christina Alexandra Voros , a camera operator who has shot more than two XII episides ofYellowstone , told IndieWirethat “ the independent character on the show is the land , ” and that they pay close attention to the landscape and time of day while shooting . “ That ’s what everyone is agitate for and over and attempt to protect , so it ’s imperative to show that eccentric in all her resplendence … evidently everyone want to shoot magic hour all the time , but sometimes there are landscapes that are more impressive in front lighter , or the essence is more excited when the sun is two hours from setting and it strike the leave of absence in the trees in a sure way . ”
8. Costner’s dad was skeptical about him doing the show.
Parade asked Costnerabout his new fanbase and Costner told a story about his late beginner : “ My dada took a grown interest in my career . He articulate , ‘ You ’re going to lose your audience , comrade . That is a juicy show . ’ He say , ‘ They ’re extend to drift away , son . ’ He said , ‘ You tick off my words . That ’s naughty . ’ Then two eld later , he ’s going , ‘ The nanny need to cognize how it ends . They just have sex it . ’ He just forgot about that other prediction . ”
9. Reilly thinks Beth is a “primal” character.
All Lady Macbeth comparisons aside , Reilly thinks fans respond to the authenticity of Beth . “ There ’s something that I conceive hoi polloi are responding to , where we ’re supposed to be nice all the clip , especially women . Right ? I ’m not sing about distaff empowerment , but there is that to it , where women are endue by her,”Reilly toldEsquire . “ With womanhood , you ’re imagine to be the Virgin Mary , or you ’re the cyprian . It ’s like this gray area of in - between , which is where all women hold out — or human beings experience — which is the truth . Somewhere in that , there is a primal thing that Beth form of touches on , which I think is what urinate her such a unique fictitious character . ”
10. Reilly also thinks Beth is a “cockroach.”
“ Beth has nine lives . She ’s a cockroach,”Reilly secernate Vultureof her character . “ She should never have hold out that bomb . She ’s like a little superhero without the mantle ; she ’s just never decease to die until she ’s believably an honest-to-goodness gentlewoman , hopefully peacefully . ”
11. Costner thinks fans like how candid the characters are.
In an audience withThe Playlist , Costner explained the appeal of John ( his character ) and Rip — his cattle ranch deal and son - in - jurisprudence , played by Cole Hauser . “ Rip is doing thing a lot of guy rope bid they could do , ” Costner said . “ And John Dutton , in really decisive moments , is saying thing we wish we would have thought of on the maculation . We ’ve all want to beClark Gableand say , ‘ I do n’t give a red cent . ’ And there are line and office onYellowstonethat resonate with people . ”
12. Sheridan is a bona fide cowboy.
In 2021 , Sheridan was inducted into theTexas Cowboy Hall of Famefor his authentic delegacy of what it takes to live the westerly way .
According to Hall of Fame website : “ Sheridan is passionate about stand for the westerly agency of biography to the masses and shows the unmanageable change agriculture and ranching has had to suffer . According to Sheridan , he also wanted the show to not just be about cowboys , but be for cowhand also . ”
13. Sheridan owns the horses that are used in the show.
The writer - director , who also meet horse monger Travis Wheatley , owns two spread in Texas and purchase the horse the actors ride . “ All the horses , for the most part , in our business are terrible,”Sheridan toldCBS Sunday Morning . “ They ’re not very stone-broke . They ’re not very safe , which is one of the reason you do n’t see actors on ‘ em very often . And I did n’t want to do that . So , I bought all the horses for the show , and then taught the actors how to ride ‘ em . ”
“ I just make movies to support my horse drug abuse , ” Sheridan joked .
14. Costner thinksYellowstone’s appeal is in how it depicts a certain “way of life.”
“ Whether multitude want to let in it or not , some people do n’t realize that that way of life is still alive,”Costner toldVariety . “ This heart does n’t get to our cities without somebody getting up betimes in the dawn and former at nighttime taking guardianship of those fauna in some means . It ’s a way of lifetime still . You know that the country still has some self-aggrandising open spaces . And [ Yellowstone ] takes that all in . ”
15. You can visit Dutton Ranch.
Yellowstonetakes place in Montana and mostly moving picture there , too ( some part of the first few season were shot in Utah ) . The real - liveliness Dutton cattle ranch isChief Joseph Ranch , which is often pertain to as “ alog mansion . ” The property , which was built in 1917 , is turn up in Darby , Montana , approximately 60 miles south of Missoula . For $ 1200 to $ 1500 per night , visitant can stay at Lee Dutton ’s and Rip’scabins , and take a term of enlistment of the working ranch and picture sets .
