Like most actors of a certain age in the 2010s, Kevin Costner saw Liam Neeson‘s career resurgence following the successful box office performance of Taken, and wanted in on the action. This was a few years before he landed the role of a lifetime in Taylor Sheridan‘s Yellowstone, and shortly after, he played Jonathan Kent in Zack Snyder‘s Man of Steel. Costner’s Taken replacement is more legit than some of the other movies of this kind that were made back then, because it was co-written by Taken‘s Luc Besson, and produced via the filmmaker’s EuropaCorp banner. The other movie that bore the same DNA as Taken was From Paris with Love, which was also produced by Besson’s banner and directed by Taken‘s Pierre Morel.
Costner’s movie was more successful than From Paris with Love, which featured John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. It grossed more than $50 million worldwide against a reported budget of $28 million. This wasn’t, of course, comparable to the performance of Taken, which emerged as a massive sleeper hit with more than $225 million worldwide. Costner’s movie also featured Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld, and Connie Nielsen. It was directed by McG, who was coming off of the mega-budget tentpole Terminator Salvation and the spy comedy This Means War. McG has since made five movies for streaming, with a sixth one on the way.
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.
Here’s How Long You Have Left To Watch Kevin Costner’s Action Movie on Paramount+
Image via Relativity Media
McG’s action film starring Costner is 3 Days to Kill, which occasionally shows up on streaming charts, likely appealing to fans of Prime Video’s Reacher. The movie received poor reviews upon release, and is now sitting at a 27% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The aggregator website’s consensus reads, “3 Days to Kill uneasily mixes technically accomplished action sequences with an underdeveloped family conflict.” The movie is currently streaming on Paramount+ in the United States, but it’ll be removed from the platform on May 31.
Costner is currently caught in a difficult situation professionally, with his ambitious four-part Western franchise Horizon stuck midway through production. The first installment opened to poor reviews and an underwhelming box-office response, which led to a delay in the second installment’s release, and in the production of the third film. Costner also feuded with Sheridan on Yellowstone, which led to the show’s abrupt end after five seasons. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
