Taylor Sheridan‘s “Yellowstone” empire on Paramount+ gets a little bit larger soon with “1923,” a new prequel series to the hit show. And “1923” already has star power on its casting list: Harrison Ford and Hellen Mirren lead the prequel’s ensemble as Jacob and Cara Dutton, the couple leading this earlier rendition of the Yellowstone ranch. Now, Variety reports, Sheridan adds more to the series cast list with a crop of young acting talent to flesh out the Dutton family’s history.
Darren Mann, Michelle Randolph, and James Badge Dale lead the seven new cast additions for “1923.” Other new cast members include Marley Shelton, Brian Geraghty, Aminah Nieves, and Julia Schlaepfer. Dale will play John Dutton Sr., the nephew of Ford’s Jacob Dutton in the new series. Mann plays Jack, Dale’s son, while Randolph plays Elizabeth Strafford, a woman set to marry into the Dutton family.
Meanwhile, Shelton plays Emma Dutton, wife to Dale’s John Dutton Sr. and mother to Mann’s Jack. Geraghty is Zane, a ranch foreman on Yellowstone ranch, while Nieves is Teonna Rainwater, a young Native American woman at a government residential boarding school nearby. Schlaepfer plays Alexandra, a British woman who meets one of the Duttons abroad.
With “1923,” Sheridan & co. look to expand on the Dutton family’s origins in the early 20th century. The show’s logline cites the period’s atmosphere, “when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition, and the Great Depression all plague the mountain west, and the Duttons who call it home.” The show is already in production in Montana.
“1923” joins “1883: The Bass Reeves Story” as the second spin-off to Sheridan’s hit series “Yellowstone.” There’s another on the way, too: “6666,” a series set in the present-day about the Four Sixes Ranch in Texas. Sheridan’s TV show empire also expands beyond “Yellowstone.” “Mayor Of Kingstown” with Jeremy Renner is filming its second season, while “Tulsa King‘ with Sylvester Stallone hits Paramount+ on November 13. Sheridan also has two more shows in development at Paramount+: “Land Man” with Billy Bob Thornton, an adaptation of the podcast “Boomtown,” and “Lioness,” a CIA drama co-produced by Nicole Kidman.
So, will “1923” be a worthy addition to Sheridan’s “Yellowstone” universe? The series premieres on Paramount+ in December, so fans of the series will find out then.
