We NEED it.
Of course, Dutton Ranch has become a hit after the entirety of the first season aired this summer, and the Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler-focused series has been picked up for a second season.
There’s no official Season 2 premiere date just yet, but knowing Taylor Sheridan shows, it could be a quick turnaround for Cole Hauser, Kelly Reilly and company.
Beth and Rip are fan-favorites who I think many were happy to see on their screens again, and Carter (Finn Little), their adopted son of sorts, also returned from the original Yellowstone cast, but other than that, there weren’t a ton of originals in this new spinoff.
But the cast has hinted that they’d love to do a potential crossover one day, which would include Beth’s brother Kacey (Luke Grimes), who is currently starring in the CBS procedural Marshals. I don’t see why they couldn’t make that happen, and it sounds like another original Yellowstone cast member would be interesting in reprising his role, and that would be Ian Bohen, who plays bunkhouse cowboy Ryan.
Ian is part of another Taylor Sheridan show in Special Ops: Lioness for Season 3, and during the premiere in New York City last week, he told Us that he would love to make an appearance on Dutton Ranch to see where the relationship between Abby and Ryan went beyond the finale episode. Of course, Abby was played by country music star Lainey Wilson, and Bohen admits it would be “interesting” to see where Abby and Ryan are now:
“It would be interesting to see where Abby and Ryan are within that world.”
He points out that they only got one season to really get their story started, and spoiler alert… Abby and Ryan reunited and ended up together in the series finale. After initially separating because of their careers, Ryan decides to leave ranching following the sale of the Dutton Ranch, and tracks down Abby at her concert to reunite, so they do end up together.
He thinks there could be a place for them in the Dutton Ranch spinoff, and I wholeheartedly agree:
“They got one season under their belt and they’re figuring out their future and their arc for the next several seasons. Maybe there’ll be a spot for those two people to show up and contribute. That’d be great.”
Lainey’s appearance on this show really helped take her to the next level in terms of putting her in the national spotlight, and I actually enjoyed seeing them as a couple on the show and was really rooting for them.. so it would be really neat if we could even get a glimpse at how their lives turned out after they left the original Dutton Ranch in Montana.
Two years ago or so now, before the series finale, Bohen did an interview with CBS explaining how the idea of getting Lainey on the show came to be. He recalled getting a phone call from Taylor Sheridan telling him he’d found him a girlfriend before they started filming Season 5… which he thought was a real life girlfriend at first…
Sheridan told him about Lainey, and Ian instantly fell in love with her music and they’ve remained close friends ever since:
“She’s fantastic. So Taylor called me in [the] early days and he said, ‘Hey I’ve got a girlfriend for you.’ And I said ‘Oh my, thank God, this is gonna be great. Tell me all about her.’ [He said] ‘On the show.’ ‘I was like, alright man, well, the search continues.’
I say, ‘Well tell me about her.’ He says, ‘She’s a country western superstar, and her name is Lainey Wilson.’ And I said, ‘I love it.’ I had heard the name, I hadn’t heard her music. So then I started listening to her albums, she is phenomenally talented.
We met, she came on board, she was incredibly eager. She listened, she was enthusiastic and we just hit it off immediately and are great friends to this day. We’re so lucky to have her.”
I know Lainey is very booked and busy these days, but I have to imagine that she’d be happy to come back for a few episodes too if they got the opportunity to do so.
I know the first season of Dutton Ranch found them working out a lot of the plot lines and things of that nature, but hopefully with a full season under their belt they can look at the potential of bringing back some original characters from Yellowstone because let’s be honest, it’s what the fans really want, even if only for an episode or two.
