Taylor Sheridan’s 1883 Had the Most Controversial Ending of His Shows

Taylor Sheridan expanded his Yellowstone world with the 2021 spin-off 1883, which traces the Dutton family’s arrival in Montana. The limited series starred Faith Hill and Tim McGraw as Margaret and James Dutton and followed Elsa, played by Isabel May, who narrates the story of the family’s origins.

Elsa begins the series as a naive teenager and becomes a hardened settler, a development that made her role feel like the audience’s anchor. That sense of centrality made her death by an arrow in the finale a jarring turn, since the show had presented her as the protagonist and the series’ primary point of view.

Executive producer David Glasser defended the creative choice, saying, "Taylor [Sheridan] believes in dropping you right into a world, and you’re going to be immersed in that world, and whatever you think is going to happen is not going to happen.

United States, Montana

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