After trying his hand at acting (and considerably succeeding nonetheless), Taylor Sheridan found his true calling in writing, directing, and producing, and those are exactly the fields in which he has been excelling lately. While his other projects have been successful masterpieces themselves, his smash hit Yellowstone saga and the prequel succeeding series are regarded as some of his best to date.
That said, Sheridan has also expressed how he doesn’t see his prequel Western series as spinoffs of the Kevin Costner-starrer. In fact, if anything, he has an excellent reason for seeing all his other ranch-y series in their respective lights instead of connecting it to the Yellowstone lore — one that even the Marvel Cinematic Universe must pay heed to if it truly wishes to step back on the track.
Taylor Sheridan Follows an Isolated Storyline Idea for His Series
Although all of the prequel series (i.e. 1883 and 1923) and Yellowstone itself surround the story of the Dutton family — from the ancestors to the current generation members — creator cum showrunner Taylor Sheridan doesn’t see the entire saga as connected.
![Yellowstone [Credit: Paramount Network]](https://fwmedia.fandomwire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/06155548/Yellowstone-Horseback-Riders-Credit-Paramount-Network-2-1024x512.jpg)
Explaining his perspective as the creator of those fan-favorite pieces of work, Sheridan told Deadline:
Yeah, peek through a different window into a different era. Again, I don’t think of any of these as spinoffs, but rather as complete stories that have common roots.
At the same time, he also made it evident just why this take was so necessary: So that the part of the audience who isn’t aware of Sheridan’s other series of the Dutton family can still watch the project as a solo, self-sufficient one and not feel like they’re missing something out.
As Sheridan continued to express about his next project during the same interview:
My goal with the next one would be that you could never have seen 1883 or Yellowstone, and still have a fully realized experience as a viewer.
Needless to say, these isolated storyline ideas with common roots that the genius brain behind Wind River developed are indeed incredibly effective ideas to keep the viewers entertained and immersed without feeling the burden of first finishing off the other series’ before starting a particular one.
That said, Marvel needs to take some seriously clever lessons from Sheridan about this.
Marvel Could Benefit Immensely by Following Taylor Sheridan’s Approach
As already mentioned above, Sheridan has created multiple series, all based on the Dutton family, and yet, they all follow a separate storyline and come off as a stand-alone series instead of connecting each other in a way that completes the other.
In comparison, the movies and series from the MCU are all entwined in the middle and connected in such a way that viewers will have to start from the beginning if they wish to truly understand what’s going on in the projects that came afterward.
In fact, there is a chronological order created for the audience to watch all those Marvel projects if they intend to complete every single aspect of the events that occur in each series.
While this does ensure that all the stories they develop get proper attention, it also requires utter dedication and commitment and switching between different stories that have all been entwined — something that often leads to viewers dropping the project in between because it feels uninteresting.
All of this being said, taking Sheridan’s approach and connecting all of those projects only through the roots or one common factor would prove to be more efficient in getting audiences immersed in all the separate storylines and then jumping to other pieces to satisfy their piqued interest.
Moreover, it would also help the MCU to regain its lost fandom and jump back on track, resulting in a win-win situation for everyone.
Until that happens, you can stream most Marvel projects on Disney+ and Yellowstone on Peacock, and 1883 and 1923 on Paramount+.
