Taylor Sheridan Kills Hopes of a YELLOWSTONE 6666 Spinoff: “I Would Never Do That”

If you’ve been waiting to see the Four Sixes Ranch get its own Yellowstone series, you can officially cross that one off the list. Taylor Sheridan has confirmed that the previously announced 6666 spinoff isn’t happening, and his reason comes down to protecting the real Texas ranch and the people who call it home.

The Yellowstone co-creator addressed the project during an appearance on the Rodeo Time podcast, making it clear that he has no interest in turning the Four Sixes into the setting for a fictional TV drama.

“There’s never going to be one,” he said. “I would never fictionalize that ranch.” Sheridan continued, “People thought that that was going to be a thing, but I would never do that.”

Those are interesting comments considering 6666 was once an officially announced part of the expanding Yellowstone universe. Paramount revealed the project during its 2022 Upfront presentation, and the idea already had a natural connection to the flagship series.

Fans got a major taste of the Four Sixes during Yellowstone Season 4, when Jefferson White’s Jimmy Hurdstrom was sent to the legendary Texas ranch. Jimmy arrived with a lot of growing up to do, and his time there became one of the most important stretches of his character arc.

Sheridan apparently likes that story exactly the way it exists. “I’ve actually got on my computer all the scenes of Jimmy at the 6666 pulled out and strung together, and it makes its own perfect little movie,” Sheridan said. “You watch him go there as this misfit, and leave as a man and a respected cowboy.”

That journey may be as close as fans get to a dedicated 6666 story. Sheridan and a group of investors purchased the Four Sixes Ranch in 2020, making his relationship with the property much more personal than simply finding a cool location for another Western series.

It’s a working ranch filled with real people raising families and making their living there, and Sheridan doesn’t want to manufacture characters, conflicts, and drama around their lives.

For him, doing that would “trivialize” what the ranch actually represents. “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.

“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.”

That puts a pretty definitive end to a project that once sounded like it could become a major extension of the franchise.

When Paramount originally announced 6666, the planned series was built around the ranch’s deep connection to the history of West Texas. The concept described a place whose roots stretched back to an era when Comanches still ruled the region.

The massive ranch, encompassing an entire county, would have provided a setting where the laws of nature and civilization collided and where elite horses, livestock, and cowboys were raised.

It certainly sounded tailor-made for Sheridan’s brand of modern Western storytelling. The project also had plenty of familiar creative muscle attached. Sheridan was set to executive produce alongside John Linson, Art Linson, David Glasser, Ron Burkle, and Bob Yari, with 101 Studios and MTV Entertainment Studios producing.

But the real Four Sixes ultimately became the very reason Sheridan couldn’t bring himself to make the show. Owning the ranch changed the equation. Rather than use it as raw material for another fictional story, he sees himself as responsible for preserving what’s already there.

While 6666 has ridden off into the sunset before ever reaching television, the larger Yellowstone universe has had no trouble finding other stories to tell.

1883 explored an earlier generation of the Dutton family, followed by 1923. Marshals premiered earlier this year, while the Texas-set Dutton Ranch followed soon after, continuing to expand Sheridan’s Western world beyond the original series.

So the Yellowstone franchise isn’t running out of territory anytime soon. It just won’t be turning the Four Sixes Ranch itself into a fictional playground, which is a bummer because out of all the shows announced, that’s the one I was most looking forward to seeing.

Considering how important the ranch clearly is to Sheridan, keeping the real 6666 separate from the expanding Yellowstone machine makes sense.

Jimmy got his story there, fans got to experience a piece of the ranch through Yellowstone, and Sheridan seems perfectly happy leaving it at that.