‘Yellowstone’ creator Taylor Sheridan slams Marvel: ‘What do you know about storytelling?’ |

The “Yellowstone” creator criticized modern blockbuster production, arguing that studios rely too much on exposition rather than visual storytelling. Image source (Instagram)

Taylor SheridanThe writers and co-creators of “Yellowstone” have sharp criticisms of Marvel movies and the executives overseeing modern studio productions. Sheridan expressed his dissatisfaction with contemporary filmmaking practices and contrasted them with an earlier era of Hollywood storytelling.Tyler Sheridan explains his approach to screenwriting and what he believes is the difference between quality storytelling and the shortcuts he sees prevalent in today’s entertainment landscape. His comments were specifically aimed at the storytelling approach taken by Marvel Studios, the company behind the major film franchise.

Taylor Sheridan’s Essential Storytelling Philosophy

Sheridan describes his approach to screenwriting at the beginning of his career. “All others do is take shortcuts. Essentially, breaking all the most basic rules of storytelling. Because they can’t figure out their story,” he said Sunday on the Bill Simmons Podcast. Instead of following industry trends, Sheridan is focusing on things that others aren’t trying in their work.He outlines the core principles he believes should guide filmmaking. “With a movie, you should be showing me what’s going on. The camera should be driving the story. The dialogue should be telling me how people in the world feel about what’s going on, or what they wish they had done, or what they wish they hadn’t done or had done. So, if you stick to that basic rule from the beginning, never let the characters tell me what the camera can show me,” Sheridan explains.

Sheridan said it’s a change from how the film industry has worked in past decades. “That wasn’t the case when Steve McQueen was a movie star at Paramount, and Bobby Evans was running the studio, because writers became more free. Directors became completely free,” Sheridan reflects on the early studio system.

The impact of executive involvement on creative work

Sheridan describes the differences in creative decision-making he mentioned in the early years. “There’s no endless rewrites. There’s no meetings with executives about tone and mood and all that crap,” he said, contrasting past practices with current studio operations, where multiple layers of approvals and revisions occur.

In Sheridan’s assessment, a lack of storytelling expertise leads to decisions driven by fear rather than artistic vision. “So they’re scared, they’re panicking, they’re worried that the audience won’t understand because they don’t actually have a storyteller,” he concludes, noting that executives’ insecurity about narrative understanding leads to the information-intensive approach he criticizes.Sheridan’s comments reflect broader concerns in the creative community about how major studios balance commercial considerations with storytelling integrity in contemporary blockbuster production.

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