Yellowstone has always been a series interested in, if not outright obsessed with, legacy. That of the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch, upon which the fictional Dutton family has lived since the late 1800s, is foremost in the mind of patriarch John Dutton III, played by Kevin Costner with the gruff bluster of a cowboy past his prime. He often seems more interested in the well-being of this land than that of his own children—or, perhaps, it’s simply that he has an easier time understanding what it needs to thrive. But if the ever-expanding Yellowstone Cinematic Universe has anything resonant to say about legacy, it’s that the land’s legacy is determined by the people who care for it, and that means the Dutton lineage—the fathers and sons of this century-spanning epic—matters as much as the borders of their property.
And so we turn to 1883 and 1923, creator Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel spin-offs, which chronicle the upper tiers of the family tree as they branch down to John Dutton III and his four(ish) children. 1883, which concluded its first season in February 2022, featured Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as the central Duttons, who claim the infamous patch of Montana wild known as the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch after the tragic death of their daughter, Elsa. The story picks back up in 1923—which dropped later in 2022—with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as this chapter’s key Duttons. Ford’s Jacob Dutton, brother to McGraw’s James Dutton, is tasked with caring for his brother’s home and family, a challenge complicated by the expected 20th-century problems: disease, drought, the Great Depression, post-war fallout, and “the violence that has always haunted this family,” as the 1923 trailer teases. That last line in particular is intriguing, given the ways in which the Yellowstone universe concerns itself with the romanticism of tradition, the nobility of the past—though only certain portions of it—and the passing-down of intergenerational trauma. (A trauma that will, inevitably, impact the land.)
Finally, in Yellowstone the flagship series, that violence and trauma comes to a head in the season 5 premiere, when John Dutton III, at last, is killed. Then, in the season 5 finale, the Dutton Ranch passes out of the family’s hands—but a parcel of it remains to Kayce Dutton, Monica Long, and their son, Tate. Meanwhile, Beth Dutton and her husband, Rip Wheeler, start up a new ranch elsewhere in Montana. These families, it would seem, will continue the legacy James Dutton began.
Still, to understand this “haunted” family best, it’s essential to parse its origins. Below, take a closer look through the possible knots of the Dutton family tree. A quick disclaimer, however: Because the Taylor Sheridan universe has yet to reveal the official Dutton family tree, the following is a speculation based on what the shows have revealed so far.
