Owen Crow Shoe in Horizon: An American SagaImage via Warner Bros.
When Warner Bros. unveiled the first trailer for Kevin Costner’s ambitious passion project, a four-part Western film franchise that the actor was aiming to self-finance, a cheer erupted among fans of old-school Hollywood studio movies. This was during the heyday of the superhero genre, and in the aftermath of the director-driven blockbuster Oppenheimer’s industry-altering box-office success. Warner Bros. had famously shot itself in the foot with a controversial 2021 release strategy that saw each movie on its slate being released day-and-date on HBO Max and in theaters, resulting in Christopher Nolan publicly severing ties with the studio. Among the many victims of Warner Bros.’ 2021 strategy was Cry Macho, which many believed could have been Clint Eastwood’s final film as a director.
The era of filmmaker-driven studio movies, especially at Warner Bros., was believed to be over. But then management changed and with it, the studio’s strategy. Suddenly, movies like Sinners and One Battle After Another were given the green light. And among the studio’s 2024 slate was Costner’s ambitious Western. This was the project that the actor-director quit Yellowstone over, and now, the series’ first two installments were getting a major theatrical release. The first part was scheduled for release in June, followed by the second part in August. But then, tragedy struck. The first installment underperformed at the box office, which resulted in Warner Bros. shelving the sequel. The third installment, which Costner had partially begun working on, was put on hold.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz Which Taylor Sheridan Show Do You Belong In? Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn’t write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan’s world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan’s universe is always absolute — and always costly.
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it’s crossed.
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan’s worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they’re defending.
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan’s world is never given — it’s established, maintained, and constantly tested.
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
10
When it’s over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan’s characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you’re complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world’s indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you’re willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family’s weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what’s yours, you don’t escalate — you finish it. You’re not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone’s world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn’t make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You’re a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they’ll do to get it. You’re not naive enough to think this world is fair. You’re smart enough to be the one deciding who it’s fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you’re not above reminding people that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they’d be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they’re more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don’t need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you’re the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky’s world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You’ve made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
Quentin Tarantino Singled the Movie Out
We’re talking, of course, about Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1. The movie was partially self-financed by Costner at a reported production budget of $50 million, but it grossed only $38 million worldwide. The hope was for it to find its audience at home before future installments are produced. While the movie is available for audiences in the United States on HBO Max, it saw a bump into the top 10 movies on Prime Video in Ireland this past week. Horizon received mixed reviews and is now sitting at a 51% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. But the world’s biggest Western aficionado, Quentin Tarantino, singled it out as one of the few recent movies that he really enjoyed, alongside Steven Spielberg‘s West Side Story.
