Taylor Sheridan may be the most prolific showrunner, writer, and creator working in television, but at least one of his many planned series is officially not happening. Sheridan has closed the door on “6666,” the long-gestating “Yellowstone” spinoff first announced by Paramount in 2021.
“There’s never going to be one,” Sheridan said during an appearance on Dale Brisby’s “Rodeo Time” podcast. “I would never fictionalize that ranch.”
Named after the historic Four Sixes Ranch in West Texas, “6666” was expected to continue the story of Jimmy Hurdstrom (Jefferson White), whose time there became a major part of “Yellowstone” Season 4. The project was initially developed for Paramount+ before being shifted to the Paramount Network, but updates became increasingly scarce as Sheridan expanded the franchise elsewhere.
Sheridan, who purchased the Four Sixes with an investment group in 2022, explained that he ultimately became uncomfortable inventing stories about a working ranch populated by real cowboys and their families. That is a notable reversal: fictionalizing the Four Sixes was precisely the plan when Paramount announced “6666” as a scripted drama in 2021, before Sheridan became one of the ranch’s owners.
At the time, Paramount described a series set at the still-operating ranch, “where the rule of law and the laws of nature merge” and “the most dangerous thing one does is the next thing.” In other words, “6666” was never pitched as a documentary or unscripted portrait of ranch life. It was conceived as another drama within the “Yellowstone” universe.
Sheridan now believes Jimmy’s existing “Yellowstone” storyline works better as a self-contained narrative.
“I’ve actually got on my computer all the scenes of Jimmy at the Four Sixes pulled out and strung together, and it makes its own perfect little movie,” Sheridan said. “You watch him go there as this misfit and leave as a man and a respected cowboy.”
But sustaining that material as an ongoing drama would require Sheridan to push beyond Jimmy’s existing arc and create fictional lives and conflicts involving a place—and community—he now feels responsible for protecting.
“Now I’m making up lives, now I have to invent a drama,” Sheridan continued. “We can’t just watch some kid learn how to rope every single episode. So now I’m trivializing and fictionalizing something where real people work, and they raise their families there, and I could never do that to them.”
“I could never do that to the cowboys that dedicated themselves and everybody that works on that ranch,” he added. “I’m very protective of the Sixes, and it’s a big responsibility to be the person who has to protect that ranch, so I have to be very, very careful with it.”
“6666” may be finished, but the broader “Yellowstone” universe remains extensive. “Dutton Ranch,” following Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), has already been renewed for a second season, while “Marshals” continues Kayce Dutton’s story with Luke Grimes. Sheridan also launched “The Madison,” starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell, following the completion of the prequels “1883” and “1923.” Meanwhile, “1944,” the next planned historical chapter in the Dutton saga, reportedly remains in development at Paramount, although no cast or production timeline has been announced.
That is before accounting for Sheridan’s non-“Yellowstone” series, including “Landman,” “Lioness,” “Tulsa King,” and “Mayor Of Kingstown,” or his forthcoming move to NBCUniversal after his television deal with Paramount expires in 2028. Even for one of TV’s busiest creators, however, “6666” is one ranch he has decided to leave alone.
