‘Yellowstone’ and What We Know About All the Spinoffs

The Paramount Network flagship series that started it all began in 2018. The second half of its fifth season (season 5B) was announced as the final season, with the six-episode season’s finale having aired on Dec. 15.

The formerly Costner-led cattle ranch family saga has continuously grown its audience, with the premiere of part one of season five breaking ratings records and earning the biggest overnight launch for the series. Yellowstone‘s record-setting return continued to pull in big audiences and closed with a series high.

After star Costner was embroiled in a standoff over his filming schedule, which delayed production, Paramount Network announced that the megahit series would end with season five. After many months of speculation, Costner finally confirmed that he had indeed departed the series. Viewers had to tune in to see how Sheridan wrote him off the series, given the cliffhanger ending of the midseason 5A finale.

Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser, Wes Bentley, Luke Grimes and Kelsey Asbille star as the main Dutton family left to pick up the pieces. After season 5B was announced as the final run, a continuation with Reilly and Hauser, who play fan-favorites Beth Dutton and Rip, quickly began development and another spinoff with Luke Grimes, following his Kayce Dutton, was in early talks. (The latter series has now been made official — more on that, below).

Because of a licensing deal that pre-dated the Viacom-CBS merger, Yellowstone has streamed exclusively on NBCUniversal-backed Peacock (and isn’t available on Paramount+ like the prequels are; see how to watch the series here).

In December 2021, 1883 launched first on Paramount+ before getting a full-season run on Paramount Network that summer. The prequel series to Yellowstone was narrated by star Isabel May and followed her and co-stars Sam Elliott, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw on a 19th-century wagon trail in their epic, cross-country journey before settling what would become the Yellowstone Ranch seen in the flagship series.

The Paramount+ series was such a hit out of the gate that the network ordered more episodes for the limited series and sparked the franchise’s expansion into 1923 (more on that below). After it had already been available to stream on Paramount+ for a year, the Paramount Network telecast drew just under 5 million viewers following an episode of Yellowstone and set a premiere record for the channel. Paramount Network also launched a linear, weekly rerelease in June 2023 amid the dual strikes.

Elsa Dutton has become the connective tissue of the franchise, as she has gone on to narrate 1923 from the grave and made a surprise voiceover appearance at the end of the flagship’s season 5B finale.

Picking up decades after 1883 left off, the second Yellowstone prequel series, 1923, traced more Dutton lineage to the elder Duttons played by Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren.

Creator Sheridan explained of his decision to jump the series to the year 1923: “I chose that moment in time to peek back in because you’re seeing the children that we’ve met in 1883 attempting to raise another generation of Dutton.” The first season ended on a cliffhanger focused around the emerging main character of the series played by Brandon Sklenar and was quickly renewed for a second season. The early 20th century drama’s premiere became the most-watched series premiere on cable in 2022.

Season two returned two years after its season one finale, in February 2025, on Paramount+. The series aired its first trailer during the Yellowstone season 5B finale, promising a cruel winter that would bring new challenges and unfinished business to Jacob (Ford) and Cara (Mirren) back at Dutton ranch, along with adversaries threatening to end the Dutton legacy as Spencer (Sklenar) and his separated wife Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) embarked on arduous journeys home.

Paramount has not confirmed if 1923 will continue on after season two, but given how the second season ended (spoilers!), the series seems to have paved the way to 1944, with many of the surviving stars (here, here, here and here) expressing their interest in returning to the Yellowstone-verse in the next prequel saga.

When confirming the end of Yellowstone, Paramount Network had set the wheels in motion for two more spinoffs. One was planned to be the first-ever Yellowstone sequel, which had the working title 2024. The present-day story would take place after the events of Yellowstone. It was given a straight-to-series order and will stream on Paramount+ (a premiere date has yet to be set). The series will continue exploring the Dutton family dynasty with new characters and locations, as well as some existing characters.

Matthew McConaughey was initially in talks to star in the series, widely reported when the Costner standoff began. However, a deal was never announced.

Since then, the series has been re-titled to The Madison and is starring Michelle Pfeiffer. The Oscar-nominated movie star is also executive producing the spinoff series, which is currently in production from franchise boss Sheridan. The Madison will be the next show to roll out in the Yellowstone universe.

The Madison is described as a heartfelt study of grief and human connection following a New York City family in the Madison River valley of central Montana. Lost alum Matthew Fox, Suits star Patrick J. Adams, TV newcomer Elle Chapman and Firefly Lane star Beau Garrett have all been added to the cast, along with Y: The Last Man‘s Ben Schnetzer and Amiah Miller.

After reports rumbled following the Yellowstone finale of spinning off the hit franchise under the Paramount umbrella, CBS has officially ordered Y: Marshals, which will see flagship star Luke Grimes reprising his role as Kayce Dutton.

The son to the deceased John Dutton (Costner) was given a satisfactory yet open-ended season 5B finale ending when the Montana Livestock Commissioner finally figured out how to free himself of his father’s legacy while giving his own family a future.

Y: Marshals will premiere on CBS in spring 2026 and, per the logline, will see Kayce joining an “elite unit of U.S. Marshals, combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy SEAL to bring range justice to Montana.”

Spencer Hudnut (SEAL Team) is showrunner on the MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios spinoff series and is executive producing with Sheridan, John Linson, Art Linson, Grimes, Ron Burkle, David Hutkin and Bob Yari.

The second spinoff that had been announced with the likely end of Yellowstone was the next prequel series, set in 1944, that will follow in the footsteps of 1883 and 1923. Details around this series have been scarce, however, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with several 1923 stars after the season two finale to speculate about how their characters could pave the way to 1944. (Here, here and here.)

Sheridan, who co-created Yellowstone with John Linson and is the showrunner for the franchise, told THR in a June cover story that he had several prequel ideas brewing, though 1944 was the first along them to get a green light.

As with the previous series, the spinoffs will be produced by MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios.

Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler are not riding off into the sunset just yet. The fan-favorite Yellowstone couple played by Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser, respectively, have been in active development to continue on the Yellowstone-verse. Just days ahead of the season 5B finale, multiple reports surfaced that the pair had finalized deals — not for a sixth season of the flagship, which had been previously reported, but for their own spinoff series. (The news was a spoiler going into the finale; Paramount Network hasn’t yet commented.)

Reilly and Hauser have both expressed their interest in following Sheridan, who writes all episodes of Yellowstone, wherever his pen takes them. “Taylor can figure out how to absolutely continue if he wants to,” Hauser told THR at the start of this season. Reilly added, “It’s up to him. We trust him. … I trust him with wherever he takes her; whether we’re leaving her where we’ve left her, or we’re going to find her somewhere else, I trust him.”

After the finale, executive producer and season 5B director Christina Voros explained how Sheridan left the door “wide open” to continue on with Beth and Rip. Read her spoiler-filled interview with THR.

Sheridan announced that the 6666 spinoff series that had been set to star Yellowstone actor Jefferson White (Jimmy) is on hold given Sheridan’s purchase of the property where the show would be filmed, the Four Sixes ranch in Texas. (The Montana ranch in Yellowstone is fictional, but the Four Sixes ranch, featured as the 6666 Ranch in the series, is real.) “That, for a number of reasons, needs a unique level of special care because this is a real place with real families working here,” he explained in THR‘s cover story. “You have to respect the lineage. I’ve told [the studio] to be patient.”

Sheridan owns and operates two Texas ranches, also including Bosque Ranch. He also recently opened the Four Sixes Ranch Steakhouse in Las Vegas featuring his Four Sixes Ranch Beef.