‘Dutton Ranch’: Cole Hauser Previews Beth & Rip’s ‘New Beginning’ on ‘Yellowstone’ Spinoff

Texas is about to get messed with. Yellowstone fan-favorite power couple Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), along with teen Carter (Finn Little), who they care for as their own son, gallop off to the Lone Star State in this latest spinoff from executive producer Taylor Sheridan‘s blockbuster modern Western series which ended after five seasons in 2024.

“It’s a new world, a new show, a new beginning, and it’s about the three of us and how we deal with the new things that are thrown at us throughout this year,” Hauser says of the nine-episode drama, Dutton Ranch.

And boy do they get hit with a lot. In the back-to-back episode premiere, series creator Chad Feehan (not returning for Season 2) who worked on Sheridan’s historical Western Lawmen: Bass Reeves, picks up where the Yellowstone series finale left off. The family has settled on a remote Montana ranch, seeking a quiet life after years of Dutton clan turmoil. Fans will remember that Beth, with Rip’s help, killed her lawyer brother Jamie (Wes Bentley) after discovering he played a role in their father John’s (Kevin Costner) murder. The couple successfully covered it up. But the peace doesn’t last. An unexpected disaster sends them packing to a humbler Texas spread where they fight to establish a business and run into a fistfight and backstab or two. There’s also a serious crime in the premiere that ripples through the entire first season.

Emerson Miller/Paramount+

Despite the scrapping and shooting, Hauser says, “You have to understand this is a show about not just action, it’s about people and the place and how they can come from the bottom and rise. It’s not Yellowstone. They don’t own a huge cattle ranch and are making millions of dollars a year. It’s about the rise of Beth and Rip and Carter. For Rip, it’s like putting him on the moon. The cowboy culture is different. He’s got to evolve. We all had to adapt and find a way to get along in this new world.”

The folks running the new world have tangled pasts and as expected in the Taylor Sheridan universe, are played by A-list talent. Beth butts heads with a super-rich ranch and slaughterhouse owner, Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening), whose dysfunctional family recalls the Duttons, and befriends a compassionate veterinarian, Everett McKinney (Ed Harris), a veteran with a world-weary sense of humor.

Hauser says of working with the big stars, “My mother passed away a couple of years ago. Annette Bening was her favorite actress. If my mom is looking down, she’s doing a jig up in Heaven. I can’t wait for the audiences to see the foursome of Ed, Annette, Kelly, and myself. There’s a lot going on.” Carter has his own adventures after he meets a striking young woman, Oreana (Natalie Alyn Lind).

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Hauser reports that the cast had one major adjustment: the Texas heat. “It’s no joke. I’m in all-black wearing a beaver skin hat and it’s 118 degrees in July and August. I lost weight. The crew, the actors, we’re not sitting in trailers, we’re a working real ranch. I’m working my ass off.”

Teamwork is a theme in Dutton Ranch. “It’s about creating a family of their own for the first time and leaning on each other for support, love and friendship — all the things you hope you’d see in a small family trying to pick up the pieces and find a way to not only survive but get along in a new environment,” Hauser says. Saddle up!

Dutton Ranch, Series Premiere, Friday, May 15, Paramount+