A Yellowstone spinoff that only exists thanks to a failed audition for another Taylor Sheridan show
One of the Yellowstone spinoffs wouldn’t have happened without this failed audition from another Taylor Sheridan show. The writer is responsible for the shows that make up the Sheridanverse, including Yellowstone and other series that help tell the story of the Dutton ranch in Montana. Sheridan wrote and produced the entire series and even played Travis in Yellowstone, a horse trader who deals with the Dutton family. While the original series will air its final season this fall, viewers can go back in time with prequels that explore the history of the Dutton family timeline.
The Yellowstone timeline began with the 2018 modern series of the same name, which starred Kevin Costner as John Dutton III. The Yellowstone universe has since spawned a number of spinoffs, including two prequels to the Dutton story. One explores the ranch’s tragic origins on the Oregon Trail, and another sees the Dutton ranch operate during the Great Depression. That said, Sheridan needed a significant failure to breathe life into one of his most compelling Yellowstone segments. The story of a failure makes the series’ success all the more impressive, and gives its narrative character rich depth.
1883 Happens After Isabel May Auditions for Taylor Sheridan’s Mayor of Kingstown
1883 took off after an unsuccessful audition for another series created by Taylor Sheridan. Despite receiving a green light from Paramount to produce a “Wild West road trip story,” Sheridan was stuck for ideas until an unsuccessful audition for the Mayor of Kingstown pointed him in the right direction. Isabel May, from the cast of 1883, auditioned for the crime series created by Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillion, but she was not right for the role. Sheridan recalled to The New York Times that May’s “jovial nature” did not fit the more dramatic feel of the crime thriller. Instead, May reminded him of “American Hope.”
Isabel May’s unsuccessful audition inspired the sequel to Yellowstone that Sheridan had struggled to write. After watching her audition for Mayor of Kingstown, Sheridan pondered the idea of a sheltered young woman who “leaves polite society behind and ventures into a more conventional land.” Furthermore, May’s audition inspired Sheridan to write 1883 from the perspective of a young woman. When Sheridan began writing the 1883 story, he completed the first volume in a short week, realizing that Elsa’s perspective was exactly the perspective the story needed to be told from (according to The New York Times.)
