Taylor Sheridan Reveals Only Reason He Would Return to Los Angeles After Moving to Texas
After moving to Texas, Taylor Sheridan revealed he would only return to Los Angeles under one condition.
“I’ve made it pretty clear that the only way you’re getting me back to Los Angeles is if it secedes from the Union and I’m drafted into the Army to take it back,” Sheridan, 56, said on the Monday, June 29, episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” adding, “It’s the only way.”
Sheridan, who also owns a ranch in Wyoming, said his dislike for Los Angeles didn’t extend to other major cities, including New York City.
“I love New York,” he added. “That city’s way, way stronger than whatever political wind is blowing it in any direction, right? Whereas Los Angeles is built on sand. It ain’t strong. There’s no foundation there.”
The producer was born in North Carolina before making the move to Texas. He lived in New York City and Los Angeles during his time as an actor before writing scripts for movies including Sicario, Hell or High Water and Wind River.
Sheridan’s focus later shifted to the small screen, which paved the way for Yellowstone‘s success. The hit series aired from 2018 to 2024 as viewers tuned in to keep tabs on the fictional Dutton family.
Sheridan has also worked on original shows Landman, Mayor of Kingstown, Lioness and Tulsa King. News broke in October 2025 that Sheridan closed a major with NBCUniversal. The five-year overall deal for film, TV and streaming will begin January 1, 2029, after Sheridan’s TV deal with Paramount — which goes through 2028 — officially ends.
Paramount will retain the rights to Yellowstone and the other franchises Sheridan created under his deal with the company, so he is expected to create brand new IP for NBCUniversal. Sheridan’s move came after Paramount’s merger with Skydance.
“I spent the first 37 years of my life compromising. When I quit acting, I decided that I am going to tell my stories my way, period,” Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2023 profile. “If you don’t want me to tell them, fine. Give them back and I’ll find someone who does — or I won’t, and then I’ll read them in some freaking dinner theater. But I won’t compromise. There is no compromising.”
Sheridan expressed gratitude to Paramount for supporting his ideas.
“Because Paramount trusts me and gives me the time to go shoot 10 to 14 days for a television episode, we can treat it like a movie, and it looks like a movie,” he told Deadline in January 2022. “We can take the time to rehearse it and light it and build these set pieces. And if I call them and say, ‘I need two helicopters in one day,’ they just go, ‘Alright.’”
He added: “At the end of the day, to go to some of these locations where most people have never been, where you’re opening up a new world, and all of these places or characters in the story, to me, it’s fascinating.”