The Real Reason Yellowstone Creator Taylor Sheridan Writes His Shows Alone

Few film and TV creators are as well-known these days as Taylor Sheridan. After first wowing audiences with the scripts for his "American Frontier" film trilogy (one of which, "Wind River," he also directed), Sheridan's career picked up steam with the debut of the Paramount Network original series "Yellowstone" in 2018. Though it took a few seasons for the show to gain a real following, it became (for many) the pinnacle of neo-Western television. Sheridan is notorious for his unwillingness to compromise his creative vision, refusing to utilize writers' rooms while penning stories for what is now the "Yellowstone" universe, yet it wasn't always that way.

"The plan was I would Greg Berlanti it," Sheridan revealed to The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. "I would write, cast, and direct the pilots, and then we would bring in someone as a showrunner to run a writers' room, and I could check in and guide them." But Sheridan realized early on that, no matter who they hired, no potential "Yellowstone" creatives quite understood the Duttons the way he did. Only Season 2 ever featured more than just Sheridan in a writing capacity — and even then, he's credited as a co-writer on every episode, having rewritten them to his specifications.

"A writer always wants to take ownership of something they're writing," he elaborated. "[If] I give this directive and they're not feeling it, then they're going to come up with their own qualities. So for me, writers' rooms, they haven't worked." It's likely this unwillingness to compromise that also led Sheridan to force Paramount to pay a hefty fee to film on his ranch for the show.

Because Taylor Sheridan is so invested in his dramatic narratives ("I'm one of those people that's incapable doing something that's not tethered to 100% of my passion," he noted to the Hollywood Reporter), it shouldn't come as a surprise that he always knew where "Yellowstone" would end from the start. 

Although the show often fell into repetitive patterns and creative pitfalls, leaving us with several loose ends after the series finale, Sheridan maintains that the ending was always where the Dutton drama was going. Yes, that even includes the murder of John Dutton, whether Kevin Costner had decided to exit the show or not. "It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn't alter it, but it truncates it," Sheridan explained, clearly disappointed in something beyond his creative control.

Despite this, the ultimate conclusion — with the Duttons giving up their land to the Broken Rock Indian Reservation and therefore thwarting the efforts of out-of-state developers — was always the way things were going to go. "Day one, episode one, Taylor [Sheridan] said, 'I know exactly how this ends,'" noted executive producer David Glasser to Entertainment Weekly ahead of the series' controversial finale. Even in the wake of Costner's departure, Sheridan remained true to his story, weaving in prophetic elements of the Duttons' ultimate fate through prequels like "1883" and "1923" — which he also maintains sole writing credits for.

Taylor Sheridan appears to have at least partially changed his mind about the concept of writers' rooms over the past few years. While he never let anyone else come between himself and the larger Dutton story, either in "Yellowstone" or the two prequels, Sheridan is not the main creative force behind the upcoming "Y: Marshals" sequel series, which will follow Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) in the next stages of his life. 

While he's listed as an executive producer of the CBS program, the sequel will mark the first time that Sheridan is not solely overseeing the writing of a "Yellowstone" universe spin-off project. In fact, he's not even the showrunner, with former "SEAL Team" showrunner Spencer Hudnut taking over the reins.

Of course, this isn't the first show created by Sheridan that's featured a writers' room which extends beyond himself. Other popular Paramount+ dramas like "Mayor of Kingstown," "Tulsa King," and "Lawman: Bass Reeves" were all written by others entirely, with Sheridan only overseeing the productions. Conversely, Sheridan is the sole writer of "Lioness" and "Landman" and will likely see both shows through as he did with "Yellowstone." While Taylor Sheridan may be notorious for taking full creative control of his passion projects, it seems he still can play well with others — at least when he isn't so consumed by his characters.