While Yellowstone fans are currently waiting to see what the future holds for John Dutton and his clan of law-skirting ranchers and family members, Paramount+ is gearing up to spotlight the epically scaled origin story of the Y rach, with country music icons Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as the 1883 prequel's headlining ancestors. While we've seen a largely dialogue-free promo for the new show previously, the video above is the first full-length trailer for Taylor Sheridan's latest TV creation, so check it out!
Already, 1883 promised to be a series primed and ready for a cameo from Yosemite Sam, and that point of view definitely wasn't upended by the full trailer, in which Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Billy Bob Thornton and more could all be live-action representations of the varmint-chasing cowboy. Not that anything about the Dutton family's history seems ripe for Looney Tunes, but it's definitely a mood-vibe, as seen in the image below. (Which also features co-stars LaMonica Garrett of Arrowverse fame, and Marc Rissmann of The Last Kingdom.)
While fans might think that McGraw's James and Faith Hill's Margaret Dutton would be the core characters within 1883, it looks like Isabel May's Elsa will be just as big a part of the storyline as anyone. The way the trailer lays things out, it's not immediately clear if she's setting out on the trip with them from the start, or if she meets up with James along the way. However it goes, it looks like she's going to be in the thick of the violence, though how much will she influence it? That remains to be seen. But you know if she's questioning why James is brandishing a gun, that weapon is going to be integral to some mayhem later on.
There's a brief peek at John Dutton Sr., as portrayed in his youth by Audie Rick, but I'm not sure how heavily he'll play into the story in the earliest days of the Duttons' journey. Clearly he'll go on to grow up and sire some of the family members in Yellowstone proper, so we probably don't need to worry about him getting caught up in one of these gunfights, or getting stomped on by horses. Although considering what Kevin Costner's John has gone through in his four seasons, anything is possible if there's pain involved.
It's not quite clear what guest star Billy Bob Thornton's character is up to, beyond being a deadly sharpshooter, nor why he seemingly teams up with Sam Elliott's Shea Brennan and his sidekick-of-sorts Thomas in the middle of town with James Dutton. But I'd definitely rather have him on the protagonists' side than the opposite end of things. Though the actor's temporary involvement may not bode well for the character's fate.
For those who haven't been watching Yellowstone Season 4, the first handful of episodes containted both direct and indirect connections to 1883. In the premiere episode, a flashback took viewers to 1893, ten years after the prequel is set, with McGraw's James Dutton shown to be making an agreement with a group of natives. Given how hectic such interpersonal relationships seemed to be in the trailer above, one can assume a modicum of peace was put into place at some point in the intervening years. As far as indirect references go, Taylor Sheridan's hilarious horse trainer Travis directly wished to be Sam Elliott in his Road House days, albeit with Patrick Swayze's hair.
Find out how it will all go down — or how it already went down — when 1883 debuts on Paramount+ on Sunday, December 19, with the first two episodes also being simulcast linearly on Paramount Network following new episodes of Yellowstone. I can't wait to see how the latter's formerly recurring actor Martin Sensmeier will pop up in the prequel in a presumably unconnected manner.
