Yellowstone has become the cornerstone of arguably the greatest Western universe ever. Series creator Taylor Sheridan drew inspiration for the epic from two masterpieces of the genre.
In the extremely successful series Yellowstone, Taylor Sheridan tells the story of the Dutton family, who own a ranch in Montana. A modern western that has spawned several spin-off series and turned into an unexpected western milestone. For genre fans, there’s no getting around it.
Two spin-offs have already been released, with three more in the pipeline. Where does Sheridan, who also oversees series such as Tulsa King and Special Ops: Lioness, get the inspiration for all these stories? In an interview with Variety two years ago, he named two films that were crucial to the creation of Yellowstone.
Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan was inspired by Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood’s Western masterpieces
On the one hand, there’s Merciless, Clint Eastwood’s ruthless reckoning with the genre. On the other hand, Sheridan calls Dances with Wolves.
Specifically, he says in the interview:
In terms of movies that have influenced me: Merciless is one of the movies I watched a lot in my late teens and early twenties. The same goes for Dances with Wolves, where you look at the western genre through a whole new perspective that had never been explored before.
Of course, one name has to be mentioned in Dances with Wolves: Kevin Costner. Sheridan later snapped him up as the lead actor for Yellowstone. In the meantime, however, this era is also coming to an end. Costner has turned his back on Yellowstone and is now completely focused on his own new western epic: Horizon.
Here you can watch the trailer for Horizon:
Nevertheless, Sheridan should have no shortage of inspiration for further Yellowstone series. In the aforementioned Variety interview, he also talks about some authors whose works have strongly influenced him as a storyteller of American westerns. His series draw on Cormac McCarthy (The Road), Larry McMurtry (Brokeback Mountain) and Toni Morrison (Manchild), for example.
