It’s official: 1883 is in production.
It was recently announced that 1883, a prequel to the Paramount network hit series Yellowstone, was in the works, a further expansion of Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone universe.
An origin story of the iconic Dutton Ranch, 1883 tells the story of James and Margaret Dutton, the original patriarch and matriarch of the Dutton family, who with the help of Shea Brennan, make the treacherous journey from Texas, across the Great Plains, to settle in Montana… where the Dutton family still resides today.
We learned that Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill would handling the lead roles, with the McGraws playing the Duttons and Sam Elliott leading the expedition.
Set for release on December 19th, the show officially began production in Fort Worth, Texas, this week.
And according to Deadline, the budget for 1883 is even BIGGER than Yellowstone. They also have revealed a number of new additions to the cast.
Isabel May will play Elsa, the eldest daughter of John and Margaret Dutton, as she hops aboard the wagon train caravan. LaMonica Garrett also joins the cast as the right hand man of Sam Elliott’s character, Pinkerton agent Shea Brennan.
“Taylor created this show about this amazing family, and now it just seemed natural and organic to start with the Duttons as they made their journey across America.
There is something that happens that explains each character’s reason for leaving to build a new life. The world Taylor has created is magic.”
And making that magic happen is no easy task.
In fact, the crew pretty much built the entire thing from scratch. That includes 30 wagon trains which were built for the show as the group travels across the Great Plains.
They’ve could’ve built a handful of wagons and used CGI to create the rest, but Sheridan didn’t want to do it that way. The end result? A full-blown city built in the middle of Fort Worth and a literal moving city of wagon trains.
“Taylor is shooting this with 30 wagon trains, going across America. The Duttons travel with other families, and pick up other groups along the way. It’s like a moving city.
Taylor didn’t want to do it CGI, where you could have built 10 wagon trains and with the world we’re living in today, you could have added 20. We’re taking 30 wagon trains across America, and he’s re-created everything.
We are shooting in Dallas, Forth Worth. We’ve built an entire 1800s town in the stockyards of Forth Worth. We’re shooting in Palestine and Guthrie, Texas, and then eventually we get to Montana, to the Dutton ranch by the end of Season 1.
There’s nothing that exists we could use for this. There are no buildings. We’re building an entire city of downtown Fort Worth, with all the hustle and bustle. Every piece of wardrobe, guns, even saddles weren’t what they are today. Everything had to be built, top to bottom.
Viacom stepped up when Taylor said, ‘Look, this is not going to be an easy or inexpensive show to make. This is going to be epic and huge and I want to tell it in the scope as if I were making a 10-hour movie.’”
GET READY.
Also, be sure to check out our Yellowstone The Soundtrack Playlist, featuring every song from every episode, all the way through Season 3.
