Being a Dutton sounds stressful, given the amount of time spent worrying about losing the ranch, but Taylor Sheridan knows how to wield that worry to keep Yellowstone audience viewers coming back for more drama. Additionally, the former Sons Of Anarchy cop also appears to know when to pull the plug on a prequel series. 1883 limited itself for a single season with 1923 preparing for a second and final outing to tie up Jacob and Cara Dutton’s story. The saga might or might not be bidding farewell to present-time Yellowstone (reports of a possible continuation persist) with that series’ fifth season.
Then there’s The Madison sitting on the horizon for more present-day Yellowstone stories, but first, let’s roll out where 1923 could go before sauntering into the sunset.
Cast
A trio of prominent new cast members will surface. Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter, Dexter: New Blood, and maybe Dexter: Resurrection) will portray Mamie Fossett, a Deputy U.S. Marshall who just might have as much swagger as Raylan Givens from Justified. Janet Montgomery (This Is Us, New Amsterdam) will portray Hillary, “a thoughtful woman who does not want to see injustice go unpunished,” according to Deadline, which further reported that Augustus Prew (The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, Players) is onboard as Paul, “a dapper, bookish, well-to-do young British man on a passenger ship.”
More good news: The Mosquito Coast co-stars still have chemistry decades later. That is to say, Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren made the trek back for this second season. Brandon Sklenar wouldn’t miss this reunion either, and we can certainly expect more elbowing by Timothy Dalton after Whitfield’s tax maneuver, as well as the return of Michelle Randolph, although actual confirmation doesn’t exist there or with Robert Patrick, Jerome Flynn, Brian Geraghty, Aminah Nieves, and/or Julia Schlaepfer.
Plot
As opposed to the overwhelmingly positive cast news above, the filming schedule has had some lingering setbacks from those Hollywood strikes. Ford and Mirren were hard at work earlier this summer, and production will carry on through the fall with the City of San Antonio revealed filming took place not only there but also throughout Texas. Don’t expect first-season locations like Malta or Africa to show up this time, but there will be portions of the series filming this fall in Butte, Montana throughout the rest of October.
The ongoing story, however, sounds more positive than news about those pesky delays. Brandon Sklenar, who portrays Spencer Dutton, has revealed how thrilled he was to resume filming after having “had all the scripts for six months.” He specified that this season’s “tone shifts a lot and it’s definitely a bit darker” but “very beautiful,” and “the finale of the series is probably one of the best things I’ve read in my life.” Can we guess that this bodes well for Spencer and Alexandra both both presumably heading to the ranch (post-duel), perhaps to help launch future Yellowstone spinoff 1944? Sklenar isn’t telling, but he sounds pumped for an inarticulate reason.
Whichever show that Spencer appears on next, however, he should figure in prominently. As the son of 1883‘s James and Margaret, Spencer occupies a particularly messy branch of the Dutton family tree that will hopefully gain more clarity before 1923 ends. Meanwhile, previous speculation that Elizabeth is Jack Dutton III’s grandmother might be dead in the water following her miscarriage, but never say never. One thing that is certain is that Whitfield will remain a pain in the Duttons’ asses after stepping up to pay those property taxes and salivating over the prospect of seizing the ranch.
Release Date
1923 won’t return until mid-2025 at the earliest. That will be more than two years after the renewal landed, but this slow return can largely be blamed on the 2023 Hollywood strikes. Additionally, Taylor Sheridan has so many other TV shows in the works and more to come, so staggered release dates are to be expected to keep the Paramount+ slate humming along nicely.
Trailer
In lieu of a trailer or released footage, we will reflect upon Taylor Sheridan discussing how he writes a zillion shows in a seemingly effortless fashion.