Taylor Sheridan Has Found His Raylan Givens

At long last, Taylor Sheridan has found his answer to arguably the most iconic character in modern-day TV Westerns. Raylan Givens is a ruthless, exacting lawman of the kind we’d expect to see in facing down vagabonds in the Old West. Instead, he’s a modern-day U.S. marshal hunting contemporary outlaws, across settings akin to Sheridan’s neo-Western dramas.

As much as the likes of Yellowstone and Landman have given us some of the most iconic protagonists of 21st century Westerns, the prolific writer and producer has never created anyone close to the profile of Givens. Taylor Sheridan’s best TV characters tend to work on the other side of the law from Timothy Olyphant’s federal officer in Justified.

Yet, for the fifth and final season of Sheridan’s crime thriller Mayor of Kingstown, a new figure is entering the fray who feels a lot like the show’s equivalent of Raylan Givens. Eight years after Yellowstone’s debut season, it seems that the Sheridanverse has found a quintessential modern-day lawman comparable with the best in TV Westerns.

The addition of crime procedural specialist David Morse to the Mayor of Kingstown cast has heralded this historic moment. Although Sheridan isn’t scripting any episodes of the show’s fifth season, he’s been directly involved in mapping out its overall plot and ending, so has certainly played some role in the creation of Morse’s character.

Taylor Sheridan Finally Has A “True Lawman” In One Of His Shows

In the Paramount+ logline for Mayor of Kingstown season 5, David Morse’s Russell Hardy is characterized as the archetypal hard-nosed law enforcer on the hunt for a wanted criminal. He’s also set up as the main antagonist of Jeremy Renner’s prison fixer in this upcoming season. The logline reads as follows:

“In the wake of Tracy’s murder and the vengeance visited upon Callahan by Mike (Renner) and Kyle (Taylor Handley), FBI agent Russell Hardy (Morse) arrives in Kingstown searching for the [suspected] fugitive Callahan. A true lawman, Agent Hardy threatens to unearth all of Mike’s sins and secrets, and disrupt Kingstown’s tenuous balance of power.”

Mayor of Kingstown might not be a TV Western as such, and Russell Hardy isn’t a sheriff or marshal. However, he’s the first “true lawman” protagonist or antagonist to appear in a show or small-screen universe created by Taylor Sheridan.

Yellowstone fans might point to Kayce Dutton’s new career path in Marshals, but he’s ultimately still a character haunted by his family’s corrupt and villainous past. Meanwhile, the recent success of Lawmen: Bass Reeves on Netflix means little to Sheridan himself, since his executive producer credit on the show reflects almost no creative input.

Indeed, among the TV series he’s actually created and at least partially scripted, Russell Hardy stands apart as a character. Hardy is the only genuine, old school law enforcer in the Sheridanverse, with personal traits that wouldn’t have felt out of place in the Old West alongside Gunsmoke’s Matt Dillon or Marshal Dan Troop.

It helps Mayor of Kingstown’s final season that actor David Morse is coming into the show with decades of experience playing seasoned lawmen, including Philadelphia cop-turned-vigilante Mike Olshansky in Hack, New Orleans police lieutenant Terry Colson in Treme, and Detective Michael Tritter in House.

Morse happens to be a veteran of screen Westerns, too, although his law enforcement roles have all come in other genres. He’s particularly familiar with crime thrillers, and has even played an FBI agent before, having starred as Frank Hare in the 1996 thriller movie Extreme Measures.

Russell Hardy Is The Closest Thing To Raylan Givens In The Sheridanverse

It’s important to emphasize that Taylor Sheridan has never created a character anything like Raylan Givens before, despite the vast expansion of his largely Western-focused TV empire. Russell Hardy is an anomaly in the Sheridanverse, as a lone lawman who shares many of the characteristics we’d attribute to Timothy Olyphant’s most celebrated role.

Much like Givens in Justified, Hardy sounds like he works to an unbreakable moral code, and will stop at nothing to chase down the supposedly fugitive outlaw he’s been brought in to find. What’s more, he’s willing to travel long distances in search of this suspect, and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

It feels like the character’s singular mission to catch the outlaw he’s after, and his persistence will have wider implications for the Mayor of Kingstown. As season 5’s logline suggests, the corrupt operations and violent crimes of the McLusky brothers could well be exposed, and face the full force of the law, thanks to Hardy’s actions.

While we already have first images we have of David Morse’s character in Mayor of Kingstown, most details about the FBI agent remain under wraps. Nevertheless, it’s clear that his introduction into the show marks a major departure from the law enforcement figures we’ve seen previously in Taylor Sheridan releases.

There doesn’t appear to be anything morally gray or corruptible about Russell Hardy. His entrance onto a scene of lawless chaos is also highly reminiscent of the other legendary Western lawman Timothy Olyphant has played on the small screen. There are plenty of similarities between Hardy’s Kingstown berth and Seth Bullock’s arrival in Deadwood.

What To Expect From Mayor Of Kingstown Season 5

Dennis P. Mong Jr./Paramount+

Filming for Mayor of Kingstown season 5 wrapped at the end of June 2026, meaning the anticipation is building for this final installment’s release. The season could drop on Paramount+ as soon as November 2026. It will contain eight episodes, as opposed to the 10 of previous seasons, but promises a big finish to the story of this prison thriller.

Mike and Kyle McLusky will have their hands full covering up the revenge killing that ended season 4. Meanwhile, Russell Hardy’s appearance on the scene is arguably the biggest challenge to their authority that they’ve ever faced in Kingstown. The initial images shared from the season indicate that Mike and Hardy will be seeing a lot of each other.

David Morse’s character isn’t the only new face in Mayor of Kingstown season 5, either. Nestor Carbonell will be playing Enrique Molina, a rival gangster who comes to the titular prison town in search of a family member who’s gone missing, with vengeance on his mind.

Although this season has less time to tell its story, there’s going to be more action than ever in the show’s final flourish. Morse doesn’t have long to make an impact, but his portrayal of Taylor Sheridan’s first Raylan Givens-style lawman will surely elevate Mayor of Kingstown’s stature within the Sheridanverse, regardless of the show’s cancellation.

Release Date

November 14, 2021

Network

Paramount+

Showrunner

Dave Erickson