Besides giving star-studded performances as Thanos in (majorly) Marvel’s Avengers film series, Cable in Deadpool 2, and Gurney Halleck in the Dune lore, one of Josh Brolin’s most unforgettable roles is from his series from 2022, Outer Range. Displaying his brilliant acting prowess as Royal Abbott in it, he won everyone’s hearts with this critically approved sci-fi Western drama as well.
Before the series’ release, there was quite a bit of buzz that it might feel like it was piggybacking Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone saga. However, Brolin was quick to shut all of that down with a disagreeing statement that made it evident that besides a few necessary factors required in Western projects, perhaps nothing was similar between these two masterpieces of different universes.
Josh Brolin Doesn’t Feel Outer Range Piggybacked Yellowstone
Back in 2022, when Josh Brolin‘s science fiction Western drama Outer Range was about to hit the screens. But while it was yet another addition to the actor’s list of Western projects, the viewers and fans had different thoughts on it.
This was because, since the Yellowstone saga and its prequel spin-offs 1883 and 1923 were already wreaking havoc in the industry at the time, buzz ran around that Brolin’s series may be piggybacking on Taylor Sheridan‘s Western lore.
However, that couldn’t be far from the truth, as the Guardians of the Galaxy actor himself didn’t hesitate to admit while talking about his series.
Talking about the same in an interview with Variety, Brolin explained:
‘Yellowstone’ was the first — like we were with ‘True Grit’ — in bringing back the Western, and that’s a great thing. If you piggyback on that trend, you feel like you are piggybacking.
Continuing, he further elaborated on just what similarities he could find between the two wildly different lores, saying:
But if you are coming with something within the genre that’s wholly original, then you feel good about it. There’s nothing other than horses and cowboy hats and maybe warring families in ‘Outer Range’ that reminds me of ‘Yellowstone.’
Needless to say, the Thanos portrayer wasn’t speaking far from the truth, because the science fiction part of the series set it more apart from Sheridan’s lore than ever.
That being said, showrunner Brian Watkins even had the most perfectly understandable explanation about why he decided to create the series right when Sheridan’s series were riding high tides of success and were pretty much leading the Western genre.
Brian Watkins Has His Own Reasons for Creating Outer Range
While Brolin explains the reason behind making his series is to cater to the audience’s requirements on how they wish to see the tremendously changed Western genre, showrunner Brian Watkins has a more pondered-over response.
Explaining how he feels “we feel stuck, we feel like we want to reach up to a higher plain — or at least imagine a future that is different than the current place we live in,” Watkins said during the same interview with Variety:
In that way, the Western is this real emblematic narrative of how and what we do with our dreams … so I’m thrilled there is such an investigation of the nooks and crannies of it right now. It’s a good time to write about cowboys and gunslinging.
For what it’s worth, we’re glad Watkins thought that way while making the Brolin-starrer series because if he hadn’t, we would have never been able to view the Western genre with that slightly differently explored perspective he displayed.
You can stream Outer Range on Prime Video and Yellowstone on Peacock.
