Who Did You Really Think They'd Hire to Write and Direct an Expansive History of the Comanches?

My feelings on Marvel’s Echo were similar to that of Mike’s: Strong start, weak finish. But what I really appreciated about Echo was not just a Native American cast but a Native American cast that I recognized from several other projects, and not just Zahn McClarnon and Graham Greene. I knew Chaske Spencer from Sneaky Pete, Tantoo Cardinal from Three Pines, Devery Jacobs from Reservation Dogs, Morningstar Angeline from Outer Range, etc., etc.

The point is: There’s no shortage of Native actors and filmmakers who have created, written, or starred in some of the best projects of the last few years: Killers of the Flower Moon, Reservation Dogs, Rutherford Falls, and the phenomenal Prey.

So obviously, when the rights to S.C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History came up, they didn’t go to Sydney Freeland — a director on Echo, Reservation Dogs, and Rutherford Falls — or Dogs creator Sterlin Harjo.

The rights obviously went to Taylor Sheridan, who will write and direct a series based on the book, which is an account of the four-decade struggle between the Comanche tribe and white settlers to control the American West, led by Quanah, who was considered the Comanche’s greatest chief.

Granted, the series is a passion project of the Yellowstone creator and in Sheridan’s wheelhouse — a bleak tragedy set in the Old West, not unlike 1883 or 1923. Sheridan has also extensively covered Native issues, largely respectfully, in a number of his other projects.

But also: Really? The guy is writing, developing, or directing something like 12 series (not an exaggeration), and they hand him this project, as well?

“I can’t think of anyone better qualified to bring Empire of the Summer Moon to the screen than Taylor Sheridan,” the author S.C. Gwynne said. “He has a deep and nuanced understanding of both the myth and reality of the Old West. I am thrilled that he is undertaking this project.”

No one better qualified, says the 71-year-old white guy who wrote the book.