Cole Hauser Opens Up About Behind-The-Scenes “Challenges” On “Dutton Ranch”
on Jul 27, 2026
Cole Hauser, Kelly Reilly, and Finn Little returned to the Yellowstone universe as Rip Wheeler, Beth Dutton, and Carter in the new spin-off, Dutton Ranch. The series was a huge success for Paramount+, with 12.9 million viewers tuning in for its premiere.
Three weeks before Dutton Ranch debuted, news broke that its showrunner, Chad Feehan, had left the series. At the time, Puck reported that Hauser, Reilly, executive producer Taylor Sheridan, and 101 Studios boss David Glasser were allegedly “unsatisfied with Feehan’s handling of the production upon completion of the first season.”
Since then, Ed Harris has voiced how he felt “misled” about the importance of his character, Everett McKinney, and considered voiding his contract. Hauser and Reilly have both emphasized how they want Harris to have a larger role in Season 2 (which he has committed to).
Now, Cole Hauser is opening up even further about some of the “challenges” the cast and crew faced while working on Dutton Ranch. For him, those challenges all connected back to the fact that Sheridan (who created Yellowstone) was not in the writers’ room for Season 1 of Dutton Ranch.
“There were challenges, you know?” Hauser said during a recent conversation with Film Inside NYC. “Not having Taylor there, for us to really kind of be able to work with these new writers, these new directors, these people… Everything had changed.”
Hauser’s comments echo what his co-star, Kelly Reilly, previously said about working on Dutton Ranch without Sheridan as a writer. She said it felt like a piece of Beth “had to die“ because of Sheridan’s absence in the writers’ room.
With a brand-new writing staff, Hauser said Season 1 of Dutton Ranch “certainly was a challenge.” Because of that, he’s incredibly proud of all the hard work he, the cast, and crew put into making the show.
“It was about putting my head down and working my a– off with…what I had around me. The writers that we had, the new writers that we had, that we had to figure out on our feet how to really perform and tell a story. So, I’m proud of what we accomplished, and I look forward to doing it again.”
Reilly has already confirmed that Sheridan will be involved in crafting some story ideas for Season 2 of Dutton Ranch. Hopefully, having him back in a more prominent role will help things go a little smoother for the cast and crew when filming begins.
Cole Hauser & The Dutton Ranch Cast Also Faced Some Environmental Challenges While Filming
Beyond the behind-the-scenes struggles they faced, the Dutton Ranch cast also dealt with some fairly intense environmental challenges while filming Season 1. For starters, it was scorching hot where they filmed in Texas, with temperatures peaking at 106 degrees Fahrenheit.
“I was trying to keep weight on,” Cole Hauser told PEOPLE at the Dutton Ranch premiere. “I mean, I usually put on about 25 pounds [to play Rip], but it was hard to keep it on…I was sweating it out.”
Additionally, they needed to keep multiple snake wranglers on set because there were tons of rattlesnakes in the outdoor areas they used for filming.
“And I’m just praying, like, please let them have gotten all the snakes in this vicinity. And they would just pick them up and put them somewhere far away from us,” Kelly Reilly said when she and Hauser were discussing the snake situation on The Kelly Clarkson Show.
Hauser noted that during the eight months of filming, 3,400 rattlesnakes were caught on set. That’s no small number!
Watch the video below to hear Cole Hauser and Kelly Reilly speak more about their snake encounters on Dutton Ranch.
