Earlier this year, Netflix wrapped up its most ambitious sci-fi project in its history and one of its most important shows of all time in Stranger Things. It took four years for the final season of Stranger Things to make it to the big screen, and while many fans weren’t exactly pleased with how things came to a close, most can agree that it avoided a Game of Thrones-level disaster. The biggest crime of the Stranger Things finale was playing things a little too safe — most expected there to be more bloodshed by the time Vecna (played by Jamie Campbell Bower) was defeated. Still, one thing that Stranger Things has undoubtedly accomplished is turning most members of its ensemble into huge stars, many of whom have already gone on to feature in huge projects.
One of Stranger Things‘ most underrated stars is Cara Buono, who played Karen Wheeler for 38 episodes of Netflix’s hit sci-fi series. Karen is the mother of Mike (played by Finn Wolfhard) and Nancy Wheeler (Natalia Dyer), and she gets a few great moments in the final season, saving the kids from the horrifying monsters of the Upside Down. Now that Stranger Things has come to a close, though, Buono isn’t wasting much time finding her next project. News broke this afternoon that Buono is the latest to join Kevin Bacon’s new neo-Western thriller in the works at Hulu, Southern Bastards. Just a few weeks ago, it was 1883 veteran and country music icon Tim McGraw who joined a cast that already consisted of Bacon, Erin Kellyman (28 Years Later: The Bone Temple), and Ethan Suplee (The Wolf of Wall Street). Details about Buono’s role are being kept under wraps at this time.
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.
What Is ‘Southern Bastards’ About?
Southern Bastards, which also stars Jonathan Tucker and Derek Luke, is based on the award-winning graphic novel series from writers Jason Aaron and Jason Latour, who will both executive produce the new Hulu series. The story follows a military veteran into the backwoods of Craw Country, Alabama, where she searches for her estranged father. However, everything changes when she stumbles into a nest of organized crime, run by the winningest high school football coach in the state’s history. Kellyman will play the vet searching for her father, Earl (played by Kevin Bacon), and McGraw will play the crime boss/football coach.
Stay tuned to Collider for more updates and coverage of Southern Bastards, which is coming soon to Hulu.
