Taylor Sheridan‘s The Madison featured a dedication to Robert Redford after a shock connection that may be traced again to Yellowstone.
A tribute to Redford was included on the finish of the Saturday, March 14, premiere. Whereas Redford seemingly didn’t have any involvement with The Madison earlier than his demise in September 2025, he has performed a task in Sheridan’s profession.
Whereas reflecting on the Yellowstone legacy in June 2023, Sheridan, 55, instructed The Hollywood Reporter in a profile that he initially pitched the present as a film. Sheridan referred to it as “The Godfather in Montana” earlier than it ended up in sequence improvement at HBO. On the time, Sheridan recalled HBO executives not supporting Kevin Costner in the principle function as John Dutton.
“They stated, ‘We wish Robert Redford,’” he shared. “They stated, ‘If you may get us Robert Redford, we’ll greenlight the pilot.’”
As the person behind Yellowstone and its myriad spinoffs, Taylor Sheridan is without doubt one of the most essential folks at Paramount Community — however the Yellowstone universe is just one a part of his empire. Whereas different super-producers — Ryan Murphy and Shonda Rhimes, for instance — enlist different writers and administrators to work on initiatives bearing (…)
Sheridan then went to go to Redford — and satisfied him to affix the present.
“I drive to Sundance and spend the day with him and he agrees to play John Dutton,” Sheridan continued. “I name the senior vp answerable for manufacturing and say, ‘I bought him!’ ‘You bought who?’ ‘Robert Redford.’ ‘What?!’ ‘You stated if I bought Robert Redford, you’d greenlight the present.’”
Sheridan continued: “And he says — and you may’t make this s*** up — ‘We meant a Robert Redford kind.’“
Yellowstone finally landed at Paramount Community and aired for 5 seasons with Costner, 71, in the principle function. Sheridan, in the meantime, didn’t find yourself working with Redford earlier than his demise at age 89.
The tribute in The Madison comes as Sheridan is celebrating one other profession win. After changing into a family title for Yellowstone, which aired from 2018 to 2024, Sheridan created prequels 1883 and 1923 in addition to the spinoffs The Dutton Ranch and Marshals.
Sheridan has additionally labored on unique reveals Landman, Mayor of Kingstown, Lioness and Tulsa King. Information broke in October 2025 that Sheridan closed a serious with NBCUniversal. The five-year total deal for movie, TV and streaming will start January 1, 2029, after Sheridan’s TV take care of Paramount — which works via 2028 — formally ends.
Paramount will retain the rights to Yellowstone and the opposite franchises Sheridan created below his take care of the corporate, so he’s anticipated to create model new IP for NBCUniversal. Sheridan’s transfer got here after Paramount’s current merger with Skydance.
“I spent the primary 37 years of my life compromising. Once I stop appearing, I made a decision that I’m going to inform my tales my method, interval,” Sheridan instructed THR within the 2023 profile. “In case you don’t need me to inform them, nice. Give them again and I’ll discover somebody who does — or I gained’t, after which I’ll learn them in some freaking dinner theater. However I gained’t compromise. There is no such thing as a compromising.”
Sheridan expressed gratitude to Paramount for supporting his concepts.
“As a result of Paramount trusts me and provides me the time to go shoot 10 to 14 days for a tv episode, we are able to deal with it like a film, and it appears to be like like a film,” he instructed Deadline in January 2022. “We are able to take the time to rehearse it and light-weight it and construct these set items. And if I name them and say, ‘I would like two helicopters in at some point,’ they simply go, ‘Alright.’”
He added: “On the finish of the day, to go to a few of these areas the place most individuals have by no means been, the place you’re opening up a brand new world, and all of those locations or characters within the story, to me, it’s fascinating.”
The Madison continues on Paramount+ Saturday, March 21.