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Once Taylor Sheridan sets out to do something, the work that emerges from his artistic ambition stands out as some of the best series or films in recent history. There can be no doubt about the superiority ofSicarioand theYellowstoneuniverse. But before he could dominate the industry, Sheridan operated at the mercy of studio and network executives.
The only downside to the vast and unimaginable extent of Taylor Sheridan’s expansive vision is his limiting hold over Hollywood’s genres. Known to the modern world as the godfather of modern Westerns, the Oscar-nominated scriptwriter has rarely been seen operating outside the fields of cowboys, ranches, or charged issues that have become a pertinent threat to middle America.
It is not impossible then to imagine theYellowstonecreator lending his skills to crafting a project surrounding the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery.
HBO Cancels a Planned Civil War Project
In 2019, after the crucifixion ofGame of ThronesbyDavid BenioffandD.B. Weissfollowed by a mass uproar on social media, the two showrunners extended their contract with HBO to develop an American Civil War project.
The storyline of the alternate history drama was inspired by popular lore about Robert E. Lee and his misplaced letter about invading the North. The letter ended up in the hands of a Union soldier and upended the South’s revolution at the eleventh hour. David Benioff claimed:
A lot of people think if the orders hadn’t been lost, things might have been different: the Confederates might’ve sacked Washington, D.C., it’s possible the South could’ve won the war.
D.B. Weiss elaborated on the blueprint of their planned HBO epic which was to be set in an alternate timeline where the Confederacy wins the war and“the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution”[as described in a blurb published byEntertainment Weekly].
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HBO’sConfederateclosely resembles the structure ofThe Man in the High Castle– an alternate history drama set in a dystopian timeline where America languishes under Nazi and Japanese rule following their victory in World War II. Weiss further explained in aninterview withEntertainment Weekly:
It goes without saying slavery is the worst thing that ever happened in American history. It’s our original sin as a nation. And history doesn’t disappear. That sin is still with us in many ways. Confederate, in all of our minds, will be an alternative history show.
The project was set to be helmed by HBO after the network’s successful collaboration with the two showrunners ofGame of Thronesfor 8 years. Unfortunately, multiple delays in production led toConfederateeventually suffering in development hell despite Benioff and Weiss’s continued involvement in the project.
In mid-2017, soon after the announcement of the Civil War epic, mass outrage and criticism followed on social media platforms. The series was labeled as slavery fan fiction and the hashtag #NoConfederate began trending on Twitter worldwide. In January 2020, the series was confirmed as canceled.
Taylor Sheridan Needs to Make a Civil War Series
The Old West work ofTaylor Sheridanhas had its effect on the masses, so much so that there has been considerable uptake in the popularity of the cowboy culture and the ranch business. All of this is to say that Sheridan is not simply a tool shaped by the structure and ideologies of the Hollywood setting.
American border drug war, the near-extinct cattle and ranch industry, boomtown culture centered on the oil and gas business, crime on Native land against the Native American people, accelerating wildfires due to global warming – all of these themes have been at the heart of a Sheridan film or TV show. Even on the surface, the pattern here is painfully obvious.
Taylor Sheridan remains unaffected and unbothered by the system that keeps the entertainment industry’s gears churning. The filmmaker only works with subjects that he deems pertinent or necessary to modern society and the evolution of its people.
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It only seems right that Sheridan would draw back some attention to one of the most culturally divisive eras of this country’s history and pen a project revolving around the disenfranchisement of the African-American people and the Civil War of 1861.
Diya Majumdar
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2409
Diya Majumdar is a Senior Content Writer at FandomWire with over 2000 published articles on the website. Since 2022, she has been working as an entertainment journalist with a special focus on films and pop culture.Among the countless genres and themes of Hollywood, the ones that particularly favor Diya’s tastes include Game of Thrones, DC, and well-aged thrillers and classics.
