‘Dutton Ranch’ Hires ‘SEAL Team’ Boss to Run Season 2

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Dutton Ranch showrunner Chad Feehan exited the series after Season 1 of the Yellowstone spinoff wrapped filming. Not long after stars/executive producers Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser broke their silence on the matter, the series announced the new Season 2 showrunner, one who’s very familiar with the modern Western genre.

Dutton Ranch has hired Benjamin Cavell, the creator of SEAL Team and a writer/producer of Justified, to run Season 2, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Cavell worked on Justified, a modern Western starring Timothy Olyphant, as a writer and producer from 2012 to 2015. He went on to write/produce for Homeland and Sneaky Pete before creating SEAL Team, on which he worked from 2017 to 2024. He’s also written and produced for The Stand, Godfather of Harlem, and The Institute.

Dutton Ranch was renewed for Season 2 on June 24, one week before its Season 1 finale airs on Friday, July 3. It had a record-setting two-episode debut on Paramount+ and Paramount Network. It tracks Yellowstone‘s Beth (Reilly) and Rip (Hauser) as they carve out a new life for themselves and teen son Carter (Finn Little) in Rio Paloma, Texas, after a fire destroyed the Dillon, Montana, ranch they got in the Yellowstone series finale. Dutton Ranch also stars Annette Bening, Ed Harris, Jai Courtney, Juan Pablo Raba, Natalie Alyn Lind, and more.

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Reilly and Hauser are executive producers on Dutton Ranch. They took on the positions to take care of their beloved Yellowstone characters, created by Taylor Sheridan, who is also an executive producer on the spinoff.

“Showrunners change all the time,” Hauser told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview with Reilly conducted before Dutton Ranch’s Season 2 renewal. “This business is about adapting. We’ve been doing this for a long time. Things change. People move on.”

“We finished [Season 1] with Chad beautifully. We finished this season together,” Reilly said. “It was a really difficult but really satisfying show to make. And so was Yellowstone. So is anything worth making. We’re all creative minds, and we all work together, and I’m so proud of that. But if we get a Season 2, we don’t make those decisions.”

Dutton Ranch, Season 1 Finale, Friday, July 3, 8/7c, Paramount Network, Streaming on Paramount+

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