Taylor Sheridan might be inextricable from Yellowstone at this point, but his new show Lawmen: Bass Reeves, is demonstrating how the showrunner is far from a one-trick pony. The new series is a Western (of course), but it remains separate from the Yellowstone universe.
There’s quite literally not a Dutton in sight, and this works great in Lawmen: Bass Reeves. Instead, the Paramount Plus show chronicles the rise of the Bass Reeves (David Oyelowo), the titular character, from a slave to a US Marshal during the American Civil War.
It might be early days, but in an interview with Digital Spy, director Damian Marcano revealed that he’s already looking ahead to season 2 of the drama series.
“Obviously, as of this point, it is an anthology series that will sort of cover a different lawman,” the writer and director explained. “But David Oyelowo has definitely set the bar high for wherever we go from this point.” So, Sheridan hasn’t ruled out revisiting Bass Reeves’ story one day, but it doesn’t look likely.
It’s difficult to get an anthology series right, but when they’re good, they’re great. From American Horror Story, to Mike Flanagan’s Netflix series, to Black Mirror: anthology series offer a wealth of creativity by not needing to be tethered to a multi-season arc. So much so, entire cinematic universes like Star Wars and the MCU are jumping on the anthology series bandwagon with sci-fi series like Stars Wars: Visions and Marvel’s What If…?.
These Disney Plus shows proved that there’s power of standalone stories, and given that Sheridan already has multi-season arcs of Yellowstone and spin-offs in the work, keeping Lawmen as an anthology series definitely feels like a creative risk worth taking. After all, the best TV series are always those that are the result of a risk.
For more on gun-slinging Taylor Sheridan TV series, check out our Lawmen: Bass Reeves review or learn more about the Yellowstone timeline, the Yellowstone cast, the best Yellowstone series, the best Yellowstone characters, and the Yellowstone season 5 part 2 release date.