In the world of modern entertainment, the art of reinvention often distinguishes the enduring from the fleeting. Nowhere is this more evident than in the parallel journeys of Sylvester Stallone and Taylor Sheridan—a pair of Hollywood figures who, despite differing origins, have found themselves bound by similar struggles and successes.
Stallone, now starring in season three of the acclaimed Paramount+ series “Tulsa King,” recently spoke candidly about his deep affinity for the show’s creator, Taylor Sheridan. Both men, he observed, were forced into creative pivots by the hand of fate. “There was a crossroads where I knew I was always going to be ‘thug number three’ coming through the door,” Stallone told People. “I saw the handwriting on the wall and knew I had to pivot, big time, and the same thing happened with him”.
Sheridan, familiar to fans as the architect behind the “Yellowstone” universe and “Hell or High Water,” began his career with the earnestness of a serious actor, but Hollywood was not forthcoming.
“No one was giving him his break,”
Stallone reflected,
“He realized the clock was running out, and he had to learn to write… He’s a survivalist”.
Both men shared this trait: a willingness to confront their industry’s indifference and transform necessity into creative drive.
Their first encounter, as Stallone recounted, happened fortuitously at a barn, both men on horseback—fitting, given the Western tone Sheridan would later bring to television. Stallone, then searching for collaborators, asked if Sheridan would help write a fourth “Rambo” movie. Sheridan declined; he was committed to finishing a project he called “Sicario” instead. Their paths diverged, but destiny soon converged them again with “Tulsa King,” an offbeat drama that cast Stallone as Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a mobster adapting to life in Oklahoma.
For Stallone, who has traversed genres from the dramatic soul of “Rocky” to the action-packed odyssey of “Rambo,” the role represented a full-circle moment. “My career started out dramatic, then it got very physical, and I wanted to stay in that action genre for a reason… But as time moved on, I thought, ‘I want to go back to something like Rocky,’ which was a drama,” he said. The opportunity Sheridan presented;
“You want to play a gangster out of water in Tulsa, Oklahoma?”
—was one that reignited Stallone’s passion for the screen.
Now, with “Tulsa King” in its third season and a fourth already confirmed, both men have redefined their careers in ways neither could have predicted. “I’m kind of caught up in the fury of how I made it,” Stallone mused,
“Literally coming here knowing no one from ground level… a couple of years later, you’re holding an Oscar. I thought, this is an unbelievable morality tale—and a cautionary tale, and every other kind of tale”.
In the intersecting stories of Stallone and Sheridan, Hollywood’s appetite for new mythologies and old-fashioned grit remains alive. Their collaboration has become more than a television milestone; it is a testament to resilience, improvisation, and the potency of believing that the best act may be the one that comes next.