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Dutton Ranch, the Yellowstone spinoff launching on Paramount+ on May 15, following Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), has already hit a spell of trouble before even having its debut.
Last week, we reported that showrunner Chad Feehan was exiting the series weeks before launch due to alleged "behind-the-scenes friction with series stars Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly, as well as 'other key players.'"
Puck News went on to expand this further, adding, "Feehan finished the first season but has been told he won’t return for the second, per three sources. (I think the feeling was mutual and Feehan likely would have bailed anyway.)
"This was less of a pure creative issue, I’m told — the scripts were good, and after some work on the cut, Paramount is confident in the show — and more about how Feehan ran the production."
It continues, "He clashed on set with stars Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly and other key players, many of whom have been working on Yellowstone for nearly a decade. Sheridan, producer David Glasser, and the stars weren’t happy, so Feehan’s out, and Sheridan and Glasser will likely elevate another season 1 writer to the showrunner gig."
'These are Taylor's characters... he oversees everything'
"There were many, many conversations about what [Dutton Ranch] could be," Reilly tells me. "What iteration, who was going to write it, who wasn't. But these are Taylor's characters. He's a producer on it; he oversees everything.
"We had five seasons of this show in our bodies and brains. So we also really had an idea of what we wanted to tell, and it had to be something that was new. This isn't Yellowstone. In order to move us out of that world, we had to deliver them somewhere completely different. They had to land somewhere. As long as it felt like a new beginning and we weren't repeating anything, it kicked my imagination into gear."
As we've seen from the Dutton Ranch teasers and full trailer above, Beth and Rip have relocated to a small ranch in Texas, having lived in Montana for the duration of Yellowstone's run. Now, they face off against local rancher Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening), whom Beth incredibly describes as a "grizzly in Gucci."
But relocation aside, what does this all mean for the alleged Sheridan-Feehan drama?
"Taylor's got his hands all over this show," Hauser adds. "That's the only way he knows how to do things. Look, you're gonna go through your ups and downs, through this business, and it's about adapting. That's what we did."
If Dutton Ranch is renewed for a second season (which is currently unconfirmed), Feehan won't be returning. A replacement showrunner has yet to be announced.
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