Tulsa King Rehires Showrunner for Season 2 After Previous Exit

It was announced in 2022 that Tulsa King had been renewed by Paramount+. The Sylvester Stallone-led series had a record-breaking debut on the streaming site and became the #1 new series of the year on cable when it aired on Paramount Network. Last February, it was revealed that showrunner Terence Winter was leaving his role, but staying on as a producer. It was reported that the legendary TV writer/producer was stepping down due to "creative differences" with the show's creator, Taylor Sheridan. However, over a year later, The Hollywood Reporter has shared that Winter is stepping back into the fold.

While Winter is not returning to Tulsa King as showrunner, he will be writing for the series. "The series won't have a traditional showrunner and is instead bringing on an as-yet-unnamed executive producer and director to help steer the ship's production side," THR explains. The report adds that Winter will be working closely with Stallone while focusing on writing duties. Winter is not expected to work with Sheridan as much now that he's not running the show. It's believed that the two producers clashed over the creative direction of the show. 

"He loves these characters and loved working with Sly and was glad his post-strike schedule allowed him to return to write but not run the show," an unnamed source shared with THR. 

"It was essentially the same idea," Winter told Deadline previously about the differences between Sheridan's idea sfor the show and his own. "In his version, our character Dwight was a 75-year-old kind of low-level bag man in the mob. He had never been to prison, he didn't have a family and he got sent out to Kansas City as a reward for a lifetime of service. When I took it over, I really felt like I wanted to explore the idea of a 75-year-old man in the twilight of his years who's only got a limited amount of time left, who wants to make something of his life. And I felt it would be more powerful if he had spent the last 25 years in jail and he's fully expecting to be rewarded. Instead, he gets sent by the boss' son to Tulsa... Dropping a guy like Dwight into the middle of cowboy country felt more ripe with possibilities."

Are you excited about the second season of Tulsa King? Tell us in the comments!