Taylor Sheridan’s New Crime Spinoff Repeats A Piece Of Yellowstone History

Another Taylor Sheridan spinoff is currently in production, but this time it’s completely unrelated to his flagship Yellowstone franchise. Nevertheless, some key changes behind the scenes during the development of this new series have ensured that it’s repeating a piece of history from John Dutton’s story.

Among Sheridan’s many TV shows, Tulsa King is one which has garnered critical acclaim to go alongside its popularity with audiences. The crime comedy-drama stars Sylvester Stallone as a New York mobster sent to start a new outfit in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Thanks to its all-round success across three seasons, the show has earned itself a spinoff.

As well as Tulsa King season 4, we can soon expect to see the debut season of Frisco King, which is set in the same fictional universe, appearing on our screens. Samuel L. Jackson is playing its title character, who was introduced in season 3 of Tulsa King as the would-be assassin of Stallone’s protagonist Dwight Manfredi.

In an unexpected turn of events, Taylor Sheridan has taken direct control of Frisco King, following the departure of the spinoff show’s original developer, Tulsa King showrunner Dave Erickson. This move mirrors what happened behind the scenes prior to the filming of Yellowstone season 3, reflecting just how seriously Sheridan takes any TV series with his name on it.

Taylor Sheridan Has Taken Over The Writing Of Tulsa King’s Spinoff

Brian Douglas/©Paramount+/Viacom Intl./Courtesy Everett Collection

With the intervention of its franchise creator, the show formerly known as NOLA King has undergone a title change and a major creative overhaul. Taylor Sheridan has moved the setting of the Tulsa King spinoff from New Orleans to Frisco, Texas, not far from his own home and the production show he owns in the Fort Worth area.

Samuel L. Jackson is still playing the lead role as originally intended, but he’ll now be a gangster working in a very different place from Southern Louisiana. Frisco is a satellite turn into the northern part of the Dallas-Fort Worth urban area, just a few hundred miles south of Tulsa.

Sheridan has certainly put his own stamp on the show by moving it to his home city, and bringing production to his SGS studios campus. More importantly, he’s taken over writing duties on Frisco King, penning the entire first season of the series himself.

Originally, the Tulsa King creator was only supposed to be supervising the spinoff from a distance, as executive producer. He decided to take a more hands-on approach to proceedings once it became clear that developer and initial showrunner Dave Erickson wouldn’t be able to juggle this position with his work on Sheridan’s other show Mayor of Kingstown.

Yet, Sheridan didn’t just take over the development of Frisco King that Erickson had already been undertaking. Instead, he completely revamped the series, moving it to a much smaller city, in an environment synonymous with Western shows like Landman and Dutton Ranch.

Frisco King’s Rewrite Repeats What Happened To Yellowstone Season 3

Taylor Sheridan’s decision to appoint himself the sole writer of Frisco King season 1 in an effort to improve the series is a carbon copy of what happened when the third season of Yellowstone was being written. In 2025, Sheridan revealed the full extent of the disagreements about the show’s storylines that led him to intervene.

He claimed the scripts for Yellowstone season 3 had so many problems that actors were “mutinying” over the lines they were supposed to read. Rather than try to mediate between the writers and the show’s actors and production crew, Sheridan simply took direct control of the scripts for the season.

He wrote 10 whole episodes without a collaborator, during an intensive three-month period while directing the movie Those Who Wish Me Dead in Mexico. The result was the most acclaimed season of Yellowstone, which still maintains its perfect 100% critics’ score on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.

Although Taylor Sheridan is famous for his prodigious output as a screenwriter, this Herculean effort in such a short space of time was impressive even for him. Yet, now it appears he’s done exactly the same thing again, by writing eight full episodes of Frisco King by himself at barely a moment’s notice.

As late as July 2025, Dave Erickson’s script for the show’s pilot episode was the one being used to get its story off the ground, according to Deadline. Little more than six months later, Erickson’s input had been scrapped altogether, and the series bore a completely different name and location.

This dramatic change in the situation is an indicator of just how fast Taylor Sheridan works. But it also reflects the ruthless control he can exert over any given part of his TV empire, whenever he feels the need to.

Taylor Sheridan Is Still In Full Control Of His TV Universe

Given that Sheridan commands a sprawling TV universe now far beyond the scope of the original Yellowstone series that began his historic run of small-screen successes, it’s simply impossible for him to write for or even directly oversee every show that’s produced on his watch. Indeed, there are shows with his name on them which he no longer has much to do with.

Soon after coming up with the premise and the pilot episode of Tulsa King, he handed the reins over to former Boardwalk Empire showrunner Terence Winter. He bowed out of direct involvement in Mayor of Kingstown after scripting the entire first season, and the season 2 premiere.

Over the past year, Sheridan has entrusted Yellowstone spinoffs Marshals and Dutton Ranch entirely to their developers, Spencer Hudnut and Chad Feehan. He’s even taken more of a hands-off approach to his new family Western series The Madison than he would have in the past, allowing director Christina Alexandra Voros to helm on-set production.

Nevertheless, no one should be under any illusion that Taylor Sheridan’s TV universe is now out of his control. What he’s done with Frisco King is a prime example of how quickly he can take over a project if he feels like it isn’t running to his exacting standards. The same thing could happen to any one of his shows.