How do you make a Yellowstone spin-off feel like the original series, but also allow it to head in its own direction? The CBS procedural Marshals took one path, bringing back Luke Grimes as Kayce Dutton — now working with the U.S. Marshals in Montana — and adding procedural elements that make it feel different from its predecessor.
In the case of Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), though, you burn down the ranch… literally. Premiering today on Paramount+, Dutton Ranch sends the duo — along with teenaged Carter (Finn Little) — to South Texas where they move onto a new ranch and find fresh allies and, of course, adversaries, including Annette Bening’s Beulah Jackson.
The first two installments set up Beth and Rip’s new world and new conflicts ranging another powerful family to the discovery of a corpse that will more than likely be a huge story thread for the rest of the nine-episode first season
Gold Derby spoke with Dutton Ranch executive producer and director Christina Alexandra Voros about what’s in store for Yellowstone fans as the rest of the season unfolds.
Gold Derby: Given that you’re shooting in Texas and not Montana like Yellowstone, what’s different about the visual template for Dutton Ranch?
Christina Alexandra Voros: It’s such a dramatically different landscape. The other show was called Yellowstone, right? And now that part of Beth and Rip’s lives are gone. It felt fitting that the newest volume of their story could also take place in a new landscape, and it’s a very classically Western motif of the new frontier. Going to a place where you don’t have the resources, the friends, the family, or the strength that you did in a place that you’ve existed for generations felt very fitting.
How much time has actually passed from the end of Yellowstone to the start of this show?
There’s been a little bit of a debate about it, but enough time has passed that they have settled into a peaceful, quieter reality. It’s probably about six months.
How will the new setting impact Beth and Rip’s relationship?
It was beautiful to be able to take these characters that were almost always separated into different storylines [on Yellowstone] and give them a storyline that was shared. The idea of Rip, Bath and Carter being the three strands of a braid in a family that you are really invested in was very exciting.
It was also a remarkable opportunity for Finn. It’s been such an honor to watch him grow up on screen as Carter, and this new chapter gives him an opportunity to really become a man and start navigating his own sovereignty and his own sense of identity. He’s very much coming into his own now. He’s on his own frontier, forging his own way and that may not be what Beth and Rip have in mind for him.
Will we see Rip and Beth’s relationship stay solid, or does it get pulled apart by what they’re going through?
Their relationship is the bedrock that everything is built on. Everything else can come apart but the two of them stay true to each other and stay strong for each other in the face of anything else that’s coming at them. That’s something remarkable about the two of them as characters. They have finally come together and found that closure that they’ve always wanted from their unruly childhoods. From that point on, nothing can tear them apart.
You break up the timeline in the first two episodes since we don’t see how they ended up in Texas until the start of the second episode. Can you talk about that choice?
Flashbacks have always been part of the DNA of Yellowstone. It’s been a way to uncover elements of people’s motivations or backgrounds that don’t necessarily play out in a chronological order. It felt like an organic way to tell that story without the entire season being an exploration of starting again. By the time we find them there, they have established themselves enough that they are actively trying to make a go at it.
Is the Jackson family the big bad or is that too easy?
Obviously there needs to be a worthy antagonist for Rip and Beth, but the Jacksons are complicated. Part of the mystery of the season is unraveling some of those complications. The Jackson family are one of the mysteries that continues to be examined over the course of the season.
As for Beulah Jackson, it’s clear she’s a ruthless businesswoman, but how would you describe her as a mother?
I feel like the universe of Yellowstone and now of Dutton Ranch is one where parents are always human and flawed, as they are in real life. It’s a remarkable performance for Annette and a remarkable character to play. Over the season we will see a lot of the complications that have made her into the woman that she is and have defined her as a mother to both of her sons.
And those sons, Rob-Will (Jai Courtney) and Joaquin (Juan Pablo Raba), seem to have a very Cain and Abel kind of relationship. Is that what you guys were going for?
When you’re dealing with a story about legacy, it’s always interesting to explore what happens when no one is necessarily the right person to hand the crown to. That was at the forefront of Yellowstone for six seasons — who is the person to carry the land forward? Beulah’s dilemma is very similar to that of John Dutton’s on Yellowstone.
Joaquin mentions his father, who we don’t see yet. Is that a mystery that’s coming later?
More will be known.
When Beth was contemplating shooting the injured horse, my mind went to the pilot of Yellowstone when John had a similar experience, and there he did kill the injured animal. Was that intentional?
Yes. The difference is that Beth’s instinct immediately is to shoot the horse and put it out of its misery, but she doesn’t. It’s such a beautiful motif for her entering a slightly different era where she has put some of the demons and the ghosts that have followed her for so long behind her. I thought it was a very beautiful way to show that without saying a word.
Everett McKinney (Ed Harris) has such a nice connection with Beth, one that feels very fatherly in a lot of ways. Will he become a true ally for them or do things get complicated?
What’s interesting about the casting of the new characters on the show is you’d almost expect Ed to be the villain and Annette to be the ally — and it’s been shaken up a little bit. All the characters are complicated, but it’s really nice to see Ed as an older gentleman with wisdom and a sense of humor similar to Beth’s own. I love the scene where they first meet in the bar; she’s usually the one to berate someone that’s drunk, and she doesn’t have to do it this time.
Any chance we might see more people from Yellowstone get mentioned?
People keep bringing it up. I have not heard any conversations about that in any concrete fashion. When you create a show like Yellowstone, all you want to do is bring the band back together, right? Everyone has their own dominions, so there are different shows with different showrunners. I know that I miss everyone from our original cast, and I love seeing what Luke’s been doing [on Marshals]. I would love everyone to come back, but I don’t know what’s in the cards.
At the end of the second episode, Rip takes the dead body of Wes — who was killed by Rob-Will — from his freezer and drops him in a hole. Is that hole on their property or the Jackson property?
It’s a different property. You’re just going to have to watch and see how it unfolds.
As a producer and director, how was it for to shift over from The Madison to Dutton Ranch?
It was a really beautiful balance, honestly. We had already done the first season of The Madison the previous fall, so this year I did the first two episodes of Dutton, the second season of Madison, and then came back for the finale of Dutton. As a director, it’s a beautiful counterpoint to go from these intensely emotional moments to these rugged, classically Yellowstone-esque explosions and car chases, and the big cast of characters and more arch storylines. It was really fun to be able to play in both of those spaces.
