Taylor Sheridan is in hot water with fans who are outraged by his recent suggestion that he never intended to make a spin-off about the Four Sixes Ranch introduced in season four of Yellowstone.
Earlier this week, the prolific TV creator shut the door on the 6666 spin-off despite Paramount previously announcing it was in development.
“I would never fictionalize that ranch,” Sheridan said on the Rodeo Time podcast of the active ranch in Texas’s King County. “People thought that that was going to be a thing, but I would never do that.”
The Four Sixes Ranch plays a major role in the flagship show’s fourth and fifth seasons, when character Jimmy Hurdstrom (Jefferson White) heads to a fictionalized version of the historic ranch to learn how to be a cowboy.
Sheridan emphasized that he didn’t want to be “making up lives” and “inventing a drama” at a ranch that is still active.
“So now I’m trivializing and fictionalizing something where real people work, and they raise their families there, and I could never do that to them,” he insisted. “I could never do that to the cowboys that dedicated themselves, and everybody that works on that ranch. I’m very protective of the Sixes, and it’s a big responsibility to be the person who has to protect that ranch, so I have to be very, very careful with it.”
However, fans on Reddit have found the creator’s explanation hypocritical, with one arguing that “he’s been talking about doing it forever. Why would he ‘never do that?’”
Sheridan had only publicly addressed the 6666 spin-off one other time, telling The Hollywood Reporter in 2023 that he was taking extra precautions with it out of respect for the ranch’s lineage. “I’ve told [the studio] to be patient,” he said at the time.
His comments came after Paramount revealed in 2021 that it had commissioned 6666 as a spin-off, set when Comanches ruled West Texas two centuries before the events of Yellowstone. That same year, a buyer group represented by Sheridan bought the ranch after previous owner Anne Burnett Marion died the year before.
Although he has said he never intended to develop the spin-off, he had previously been signed on as an executive producer of the show, as a second person noted. “He signed on to be EP for a show that he would never do,” they added. “Lol.”
“Why lie about it now, and say you would never do it and disrespect/trivialize the real people who work there?” a third questioned.
“Unf****ing believable. I know it’s fun to s*** on Yellowstone, but this is just insult to injury,” another commented.
“They spend a few episodes introducing the concept, then an entire season that is dedicated for a character going there and mastering horsey nonsense. I mean it’s one of the central plots the entire season, probably the C plot,” they continued. “And right after it gets name dropped the first few times and immediately after the character transferred there, this spin off got greenlit.”
The Independent has contacted Sheridan’s representative for comment.
Sheridan may have permanently shelved 6666, but he still remains busy with seven shows currently airing — two of which are separate spin-offs of Yellowstone — and at least two new shows on the way.
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