It’s been a whirlwind for the Yellowstone franchise, and particularly for Christina Alexandra Voros. Coming out of the mega-hit flagship as one of Taylor Sheridan‘s right-hand directors, Voros has been spending so much time filming Sheridan’s post-Yellowstone series that she and husband Jason Owen, who works on the franchise as animal coordinator, even bought a home in Texas.
“I finally broke down and got a place at Fort Worth. I have not been home-home since April of last year!” she tells The Hollywood Reporter while discussing the newest Yellowstone spinoff, Dutton Ranch. The highly anticipated series brings fan-favorite couple Beth Dutton, played by Kelly Reilly, and Rip Wheeler, played by Cole Hauser, back to television. The first two episodes of the nine-episode season were released Friday on Paramount+.
“We were here [in New York], what, two months ago for The Madison?” says Voros of another Sheridan series, which exists outside of Yellowstone and stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell. “I left here. I finished up [directing] the finale of Dutton Ranch, and then moved onto prepping Frisco King [Sheridan’s Tulsa King spinoff], which we’re in the process of shooting right now.”
Voros has been on board for Dutton Ranch ever since conversations began years ago, before Yellowstone even aired its final episode. The summer before Yellowstone signed off in 2023, David Glasser at 101 Studios and Keith Cox at Paramount began exploring how they could continue on Sheridan’s mega-hit franchise. They were pursuing either a spinoff about Kayce Dutton or a spinoff about Beth Dutton, and they ended up getting spinoffs for both Dutton siblings. Marshals, following Luke Grimes‘ Kayce, has been airing weekly on CBS this spring.
The hook for both series was how to upend the peaceful endings each surviving Dutton child was handed in the Yellowstone series finale. Marshals did that by killing off Kayce’s wife, Monica Dutton (Kelsey Asbille), and pushing him to start anew with the U.S. Marshals. Now Dutton Ranch has revealed in its premiere that the Montana ranch Beth and Rip had planned to make home after leaving the family ranch behind burnt to the ground in a fire, forcing them to start over in Rio Paloma, Texas, where they encounter a new adversary played by Annette Bening and enough Yellowstone-style violence that Rip starts a new “train station” (the Yellowstone term for the graveyard of Dutton enemies) by the end of episode two.
This time around, Reilly and Hauser have been elevated to executive producers, and Sheridan handed over the reins to showrunner Chad Feehan to write the scripts and run the set. “They were very protective of their own voices and their love for each other,” she says of her two stars. “And of the story and legacy they are a part of. It was a really beautiful thing to see them be able to take those reins.”
Below in conversation with THR, Voros peels back the curtain on building Dutton Ranch, splitting her time on Sheridan series to direct the first two episodes and then return for the finale, how the show plans to adapt if it’s renewed for season two after Feehan’s exit (as they await a renewal and new showrunner), and why Beth and Rip were meant for a spinoff: “You think they are going to ride off happily into the sunset, but it’s Rip and Beth, so the danger is always going to follow them. Yellowstone was always about maintaining the legacy and protecting the land, and with the absence of the land, what Beth and Rip have is each other.”
So Paramount wanted Yellowstone spinoffs ASAP. Those conversations began before Yellowstone was even over. So when did this first come to you, for Dutton Ranch, specifically? Do you remember the date?
It’s been such a whirlwind. I can’t tell you exactly when it was. I just knew that as soon as I knew about it, it was exactly where I wanted to be. I would walk through fire for Kelly and Cole. They are family to me. I feel so lucky to have been part of that show and their story for as many years. We have done birthdays and anniversaries and funerals. We’ve been through the fire with each other, and it was really, really exciting for me to move into this new chapter of their story with them.
No one knew that the strikes were going to happen and that the final season of Yellowstone would get so delayed [over Kevin Costner negotiations]. The Madison then filmed two seasons back to back, and now Dutton Ranch premieres right on its heels. How tricky was it, scheduling-wise, to make it work so you could direct all these shows?
It was a little tricky. The first season of The Madison was already shot, but we knew we were doing a season two. So I started on Dutton. I did the first two episodes. I shot the first two episodes and helped build the crew and put the team together. And then went and did six episodes of The Madison, and then came back to do the finale of Dutton. So it was nonstop, but it was absolutely worth every sleepless night and every crazy airplane flight. I feel so lucky to have been a part of those stories. My husband was an animal coordinator on both, so we’re like a circus family moving from one to the other. It was almost impossible, but somehow we made it happen, and I’m so, so glad that we did.
Was your first conversation on Dutton Ranch with Taylor Sheridan or with Chad Feehan about the story, and the hook to bringing Beth and Rip back by ruining their peaceful Yellowstone ending?
I remember hearing Chad’s pitch originally, but I was already affiliated with whatever was going to be. With the backstory of the 10 Petal Ranch and Beulah Jackson [Annette Bening’s character], it’s really exciting to see these adversaries come across the path of Rip and Beth, because something I found myself wondering is, where do they go? The thing that they have been fighting for for so long, there is peace there. There was closure there. You think they are going to ride off happily into the sunset, but it’s Rip and Beth, so the danger is always going to follow them. The fights are always going to show up at their doorstep, and they are going to meet it with ferocity and love for each other.
But who are those people who are going to anchor a story without the world that they came from and the characters that we’ve come to know so well? So it was really exciting to see Beulah Jackson and the Jackson family emerge, and Everett McKinney [Ed Harris] emerge as people who are going to be part of this new chapter of their lives.
Kelly and Cole have been elevated to executive producers. They, and you, by directing the first two episodes, set the tone for this series. What was it like working with them in this new capacity?
We had a lot of prep time in the lead up. And I will say that Kelly and Cole are EPs — it is not a vanity title. They were so integral to the shaping of the show and staying true to the DNA of the characters that Taylor [Sheridan] wrote. It was a real joy to work with them in that capacity.
Kelly and Cole have described themselves as being obsessive about these characters. What would you say they were most obsessive about that you feel like you got right?
It’s funny, they never seem obsessive to me. They just seem very fiercely protective. When you play a character for seven or eight years, you know that character better than the person writing the words. You have lived that story and you have made all those decisions and they were very protective of their own voices and their love for each other and their love for Carter [Finn Little]. But they’re also protective of the story and the legacy they’re part of. So, it was really a beautiful thing to see them come into their own as producers on a show where they already had so much ownership of the DNA.
Taylor Sheridan is an executive producer but he didn’t write this series. I know Beth Dutton is one of his favorite characters to write. How involved was Taylor? Was he on set, or was this a real passing of the reins?
Taylor had built the foundation that this was all built upon. And when you have a really strong foundation, it is easy to move upwards. I think that, much like Kelly and Cole, I learned so much from my years on Yellowstone and my work with Taylor on other projects that it’s like raising a kid. You teach them everything you know, you send them out to the world and then they go build their own life. Taylor has given all of us such a profound sense of identity when it comes to what the story is and who these characters are, that it’s very easy to build when you have so much of a sense of where you’ve come from.
When you came back to direct the finale, was that a challenge to have been gone for such a chunk of filming? Or did it feel like a homecoming?
It was hard because I’ve always been embedded on shows from start to finish. Every season of Yellowstone, even if I only directed four episodes, I was there start to finish, or I was shooting for other directors. This was the first time I had to walk away for a little bit, and it was heartbreaking. I was on the phone with Kelly every day, going, “What’s happening? How are you doing?” I’m watching dailies and we had wonderful directors with us to round out the rest of the season. They did an incredible job staying true to the style of storytelling and protecting these characters and their narrative. But it was really hard to not be there.
It was a crew we built from the ground up. It was a homecoming when we got back. My first AD, Kether Abeles, is like the other part of my brain, and she’s like the mother hen on set. So it was wonderful to get to close out the season. I wish I could have been there the whole time, but this was second best. Getting a reunion coming back to it at the end was really beautiful.
Paramount, of course, wants another Yellowstone hit on its hands; the idea would be for a multi-season series. You’re aware of the creative vision and, having directed the finale, are you guys setting up multiple seasons?I would stay on this ride forever. And I would go anywhere with Kelly and Cole. I think there’s an infinite number of possibilities for characters like Rip and Beth. They are like a modern day Bonnie and Clyde. Everyone wants to see who they’re going to be up against and how they’re going to get through it, and I would love to be along for that ride as long as it’s there.