This Incredible Taylor Sheridan Netflix Hit Movie Will Cure Your ‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Craving [Watch]
Yellowstone fans are eagerly awaiting Season 5 of the epic series on the Paramount Network, but they don't have to deny themselves. There's a really great movie available on Netflix right now that was headed up by Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan, and it also features many of the same actors and storytelling themes as the runaway hit show.
Sheridan wrote and directed Wind River, which he released in 2017, one year before Yellowstone premiered in 2018. The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 before opening in limited theatrical release, followed by a wider theatrical release.
The film takes place at the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming, where a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent named Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) discovers the body of an 18-year-old indigenous girl named Natalie Hanson in the snow. She has been sexually assaulted, and in the investigation that follows, in which he assists an inexperienced FBI agent named Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen), it's revealed that Hanson was assaulted by men working on a nearby oil rig along with her boyfriend, who also worked there. She fled barefoot through the night in wintery conditions, resulting in her death.
Sheridan was drawn to the subject matter after reading about how many indigenous women are sexually assaulted and murdered and how often those crimes can not only go unsolved, but are essentially left uninvestigated due to the lack of resources and legal standing on reservation lands. It's a variation on themes he's returned to again and again on Yellowstone, which often explores the uneasy relations between indigenous people forced into a multi-generational settlement on reservation lands and those whose lands border them.
In addition to resembling much of the same tone of the hit show, Wind River is set amid the same kind of natural splendor as Yellowstone, and the juxtaposition of nature's beauty and simultaneous unsparing harshness is another common theme.
Yellowstone fans will be quick to recognize a number of familiar faces in the cast of Wind River, too. Kelsey Asbille — who plays Monica Dutton on Yellowstone — plays Natalie Hanson, and Gil Birmingham (Yellowstone's Chief Thomas Rainwater) plays her father, Martin Hanson. Other future Yellowstone actors who appear in Wind River include Hugh Dillon, Ian Bohen, Martin Sensmeier and James Jordan.
Wind River spent some time in the Top 5 on Netflix in 2021, years after its initial release.
Yellowstone has become the most-watched show on cable television since it debuted in 2018, and its success has spawned multiple spinoffs, including 1883, as well as the upcoming 6666, 1883: The Bass Reeves Story and 1932.
Season 5 of Yellowstone is currently shooting in Montana, and it's set to premiere on Nov. 13. The entire principal cast is set to return, including Kevin Costner (John Dutton), Luke Grimes (Kayce Dutton), Kelly Reilly (Beth Dutton), Wes Bentley (Jamie Dutton), Cole Hauser (Rip Wheeler), Kelsey Asbille (Monica Dutton), Brecken Merrill (Tate Dutton), Jefferson White (Jimmy Hurdstrom), Forrie Smith (Lloyd Pierce), Denim Richards (Colby Mayfield), Ian Bohen (Ryan), Finn Little (Carter), Ryan Bingham (Walker) and Gil Birmingham (Thomas Rainwater). Yellowstone has also upped Jen Landon (Teeter) and Kathryn Kelly (Emily) to series regulars.
Season 5 of Yellowstone will serve up an extra-long season consisting of 14 episodes, and the season will air in two sections of 7 episodes apiece.