Taylor Sheridan Fans Flock to $169 Million Western Masterpiece To Make Up for ‘Marshals’ Disappointment
Fans eager to jump back into Taylor Sheridan‘s Yellowstone universe had a bittersweet time last week. While they were finally presented with a fresh show featuring familiar faces, they were also confronted with something entirely unexpected. Gone were the biblical themes and movie-level production values; what they saw instead was a procedural clearly made for television.
The franchise’s latest show, Marshals, premiered on March 1 and promptly attracted middling reviews. In fact, Marshals is the lowest-rated installment of the franchise, according to the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. It’s probably no surprise that a day after its premiere, Sheridan’s previous two Yellowstone spin-offs saw a spike in viewership.
Yellowstone began its five-season run in 2018 and ended in 2022, mainly due to a fallout between Sheridan and the show’s lead, Kevin Costner. By then, Yellowstone had already emerged as a landmark hit and Sheridan was neck-deep in work on two prequels. The first was 1883 and the second 1923.
Both shows traced the origins of the Dutton family from the perspective of John Dutton III’s ancestors. The shows allowed Sheridan to luxuriate in old-fashioned Western storytelling. 1883 remains the closest fans have come to getting an adaptation of the Red Dead Redemption video games, while 1923 told an epic, The Godfather-inspired family saga about a prodigal son’s return to defend his people.
Both ‘Yellowstone’ Prequels Skyrocketed on Digital Following the Debut of ‘Marshals’
