Netflix’s Yellowstone Replacement Is Officially Only 5 Weeks Away

Published Oct 22, 2026, 3:31 PM EDT Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020. There are far too many shows attempting to replace Yellowstone right now, but one unlikely Netflix series seems to have Taylor Sheridan’s elusive recipe down. The fact that Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan has seven shows on TV and streaming right now, and another on the way with Tulsa King’s spinoff Frisco King, proves just how much both traditional TV networks and streaming services are clamoring to find the next Yellowstone. Already, Yellowstone has two prequels in the form of 1883 and 1923, with another, 1944, on the way, and two sequels in the spiritual successor Dutton Ranch and the CBS procedural Marshals. While the former focuses on Beth Dutton and the latter centers on her conflicted brother Casey, neither show has yet managed to replicate the breakout mainstream success that Yellowstone enjoyed throughout its five-season run. Meanwhile, expensive Netflix Western shows like The Abandons and American Primeval have attempted to become the next big mainstream Western hit, only to then quietly end after a single season. However, this might be because shows that want to be the next Yellowstone shouldn’t be so focused on their Western bonafides. In reality, it was the campy melodrama of Yellowstone that kept viewers coming back for more, something that Netflix’s hit thriller The Hunting Wives understands. The Hunting Wives Is One of Netflix’s Biggest Psychological Thrillers Ever Rivaling the five-season Caroline Kepnes adaptation You and executive producer David Fincher’s Mindhunter in terms of record-setting streaming success, The Hunting Wives was a huge hit psychological thriller for Netflix when season 1 of the soapy series arrived on the streaming service in August 2025. Starring Brittany Snow as Sophie, a newcomer in the wealthy Texan town of Maple Brook, The Hunting Wives is based on the novel of the same name by author May Cobb. Sophie has a questionable past that she hopes to evade by moving to Maple Brook. However, it is not long before the wild-living, hard-drinking, perpetually partying housewives of the show’s title introduce Sophie to new levels of decadence and depravity hidden beneath the cherry veneer of their suburban hometown. Thus, the stage is set for a thriller that takes the small town murder mystery of Twin Peaks and infuses it with the amoral antics of Yellowstone. Since Yellowstone’s main character, Kevin Costner’s glowering John Dutton, was a brooding, self-serious rancher, viewers unfamiliar with the series could be forgiven for assuming Sheridan’s Neo-Western saga was a terribly serious, dark show. However, Yellowstone was really more of a campy, R-rated spin on Dallas or Dynasty, where ultra rich anti-villains were forever stabbing each other in the back or killing each other with rattlesnakes to avoid selling their massive sprawling ranches. The Hunting Wives Season 2 Is The Best Yellowstone Replacement Image courtesy of Everett Collection The Hunting Wives season 2 is arguably the best Yellowstone replacement, precisely because the show has no pretensions toward taking itself seriously as a dark, gritty Western. Instead, like Yellowstone, the thriller follows uber-rich Southern antiheroes as they skirt the law and get up to outrageous dirty dealings, including murder and affairs, focusing more on delivering consistent shock value and entertainment rather than believability or serious social commentary. While Sheridan’s Landman has struggled to match the campy fun of Yellowstone, The Hunting Wives has sneakily replicated the appeal of the series by turning it into a Netflix psychological thriller. However, season 2 faces a familiar adaptation problem as, like The Handmaid’s Tale, The Man in the High Castle, and many other shows before it, season 2 must come up with an all-new story. Since season 1’s finale reached the end of the novel’s story and then radically altered the twist of Cobb’s source book, The Hunting Wives season 2 is now tasked with taking season 1 survivors Margo and Sophie’s shared story in an entirely fresh, original direction. Thus, it remains to be seen whether The Hunting Wives has the same longevity as Yellowstone. Release Date July 21, 2025 Network Netflix Directors Julie Anne Robinson Cast Brittany Snow Sophie O’Neill Malin Akerman Margo Banks Creator(s) Rebecca Perry Cutter