The actress Isabel May had auditioned for that gritty political drama, but her sunny disposition didn’t fit with Sheridan and his co-creator Hugh Dillon’s intentions. It wasn’t until he was working on one of his other Paramount+ shows, “Mayor of Kingstown,” that his premise snapped into place. As a fan of the Larry McMurtry cattle-drive novel “Lonesome Dove” (and its TV mini-series adaptation), Sheridan chose to tell a similar Wild West “road trip” tale, set nearly 140 years ago.īut after selling that idea to Paramount+, Sheridan got writer’s block, and was unable to figure out a way into the story. Given that the cable TV ratings for “Yellowstone” have risen each year since the show’s 2018 debut - with the current fourth season averaging over seven million same-day viewers an episode, outpacing most network television shows - it is no surprise that Paramount+ would want to work with Sheridan to expand the show’s universe. The locations have been remote, the days long, and in striving for authenticity Sheridan and his team have pushed themselves to the limit. Telling this story required a challenging five-month shoot that is still going - it began in August in a 100-degree Texas swelter and is continuing into the single-digit chill of winter in Montana. Premiering Sunday on Paramount+, “1883” is a Dutton origin story, following the original settlers of the Yellowstone land as they endure the hardships of the Oregon Trail, accompanied by European immigrants and a few skilled frontiersmen. The show’s writer-producer (and sometime director) Taylor Sheridan created “1883” as a prequel to his popular Paramount Network series “Yellowstone,” which tells the present-day story of John Dutton (Kevin Costner), an aging Montana rancher trying to hold on to the enormous spread his family has owned for generations. But when the cast and crew of the new Paramount+ series “1883” headed into America’s frontier past, some wondered if they would ever make it back. Making a western is a little like building a time machine out of wooden planks, leather straps and canvas sheets.

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