5 Years Ago Today: Taylor Sheridan Launched A Hit TV Drama Outside The Yellowstone Universe

Taylor Sheridan may be best known for "Yellowstone" and all of the spinoffs it's spawned — including "1923" and "Dutton Ranch" — but he's created/co-created several series outside of that universe. One of them, "Mayor of Kingstown," premiered five years ago today.

Created by Sheridan and Hugh Dillon, the show follows Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner), who's the key to facilitating a peaceful balance between criminals and law enforcement around the town of Kingstown, Michigan, "where incarceration is its biggest business" (via Paramount+). He was thrust into the dangerous position after the murder of his brother Mitch (Kyle Chandler), who wielded great power in town. Of course, that was only the start of the drama for Mike, who's spent the last four seasons navigating the increasingly volatile setup. 

Season 5 of "Mayor of Kingstown" will premiere on January 15, 2027. In addition to Renner, Season 5 will also star Nichole Galicia, Edie Falco, David Morse, Laura Benanti, Taylor Handley, Tobi Bamtefa, and Derek Webster, along with several more.

The mostly rewatchable "Yellowstone" may have preceded "Mayor of Kingstown" by several years, but Taylor Sheridan actually wrote the latter first. He made this admission while discussing his pivot from acting to writing. "If you're banging your head against the wall for 20 years trying to be an actor, maybe you shouldn't be an actor," he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023. Then came a shift. "But the first thing I ever wrote [the pilot for "Mayor of Kingstown" in 2011] got me meetings at every major network, at every agency. I had multiple people trying to buy it."

The path to selling the rights and actually getting the show made was anything but linear — especially because Sheridan, who's known to write most of his own material, was hesitant to give up creative control by letting "more experienced" writers bring his premise to life. But "Mayor of Kingstown" eventually became another popular series for him.

Unfortunately for fans, Season 5 will mark the end of "Mayor of Kingstown," but it's ending will likely be meticulously planned. According to Sheridan's co-creator, Hugh Dillon, Sheridan knew exactly how he wanted "Mayor of Kingstown" to end from the beginning. "We had it before, where we sold the script. Taylor had it. Taylor had it in his head," Dillon shared with ScreenRant when discussing their script-writing process. "We talked about how the whole thing goes, and this is where it's going to end in whatever season it ends, but that's part of what the fun was, because then we can fill in the rest of it, because we know where it's ending."