The Madison star Kurt Russell is revealing what fans can expect from the upcoming show, and why they decided to go ahead and shoot the first two seasons before fans even saw a single episode.
After a long wait and a lot of speculation, The Madison is set to premiere on March 14 on Paramount+. The Taylor Sheridan show that has been teased and talked about for years, initially billed as a Yellowstone spinoff before they walked that back, finally set a premiere date just a couple of weeks ago. That was met with a lot of excitement from fans, especially because the series has already shot and wrapped on two separate seasons.
The Madison is described to be some of Sheridan’s most intimate work, and will tell a story that explores grief and human connection. As far as plot is concerned, the series revolves around the titular character of Stacy Clyburn, a wealthy matriarch who upends her life in New York City to move her and her family to Montana following a plane crash that kills her husband and brother-in-law. The show is set to star Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell as leads of the series. The timing of the addition of Russell to the cast led many to believe that he was only joining for Season 2, but it has now been confirmed that he’ll be included in both Season 1 and 2.
Scheduling conflicts nearly kept Kurt Russell from being a part of the Sheridan series, but his co-star and the show’s creator were able to convince Paramount to stick with him, as Russell explained in the recent interview with Entertainment Weekly:
“Michelle Pfeiffer and Taylor were able to get together with the people at Paramount+ and said, ‘Well, let’s do two seasons instead of just one. And then before we start the second season next year, instead of doing that, we will start with Kurt’s stuff. We really do want him to play the guy. And we’ll get his first season out of the way first, and jam all that in there, and then go into the second season and do that.’ And so we were able to do that.”
So there’s why Seasons 1 and 2 were shot back-to-back without a single episode airing.
As for what fans can expect out of the Taylor Sheridan show (that is NOT a Yellowstone spinoff), Kurt Russell went on to describe the series as “very smart” and a bit different than what Sheridan has done in the past. And the 74-year-old actor was very impressed by the work of his co-star, Michelle Pfeiffer, in The Madison:
“I was very happy about that, because I really like what ‘The Madison’ is. It’s a smart show. He’s a really good writer — Taylor’s excellent, and Michelle’s great, and she’s really great in this show. Talking about awards — I think they’re going to be looking Michelle’s way. Writing is so compelling. And I think that it’s a very different show for Taylor in that it’s a very female-gaze-oriented show. And I think it’s extremely well written, it was fun to play. It was really fun to do. I just had a good time.”
For those wondering what “female-gaze-oriented” means, Russell was just saying that it’s a female-driven story that women should be able to connect with more than other Sheridan shows, which tend to be in the “male gaze” category (if we’re continuing in the speak of Kurt Russell). And that’s not to say that men can’t enjoy it, but it sounds like we’re gonna get a lot more emotion and a lot less action in this new series. It also sounds like Kurt’s character is gonna be dead and we’re going to get a lot of flashback material.
If you haven’t had a chance to see the emotional first trailer for the highly anticipated series, you can check out The Madison’s date announcement trailer below:
