Sam Elliott attends the 1883 world premiere

‘1883’s Sam Elliott Wants a Shea Brennan Spinoff, and It’s the ‘Yellowstone’ Prequel We Need Next

Sam Elliott is famous for his gruff cowboy characters. It doesn’t matter if he’s playing a gunslinger in Tombstone or an aging modern-day cowboy in The Ranch, Elliott delivers. So, when it came time for him to step into the role of Shea Brennan in 1883, he truly brought the character to life. The veteran actor was able to embody the rough exterior as well as the complicated emotional underpinning of the character. As a result, many fans got attached to him throughout the show’s single season. His tragic end left countless viewers wanting more.  

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In a recent interview with Variety, Sam Elliot discussed the end of 1883 and his time on the show. During the conversation, Elliott revealed that he’d like to revisit the character for another Yellowstone spinoff.

https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1628182328039317504

Sam Elliott Is Ready for a Shea Brennan Spinoff

During the interview, Sam Elliott revealed that his time in 1883 was different than other westerns. “It wasn’t a big stretch for me, because I was so familiar with the genre,” Elliott said. “That said, I went places I had never gone before in that genre. I think that’s probably because so much of the character was internalized.”

Elliott went on to say that, like the rest of the cast, he was sad to see the series end. “I would have liked to have that wagon train go to Canada by [the time production wrapped] and just stay with it,” he revealed. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Instead, the epic and emotional story at the heart of 1883 came to an abrupt and heartbreaking end.

Just because the story ended doesn’t mean there’s no more to tell. “My thought was, ‘Let’s do a prequel of this.’ Where was LaMonica? Where were those two guys? Pick it up after the war, when they were Pinkertons. There’s plenty of stuff to do,” Elliott stated. He’s not wrong. Shea Brennan and LaMonica Garrett’s character Thomas had plenty of history. They fought in the Civil War together, they hunted criminals with the Pinkerton Detective Agency, and they guided people West. There’s so much story to tell. We only saw how the story ended.

Elliott and Garrett Share a Bond

Sam Elliott and LaMonica Garrett work incredibly well together in the series. They were able to bond and become friends behind the scenes and that translated into an incredible onscreen pairing. “I get very emotional when I talk about the relationship between Shea and Thomas,” Elliott revealed in a previous interview.

“When you get an opportunity to take a relationship all the way through a project, it just enriches it all the way along. Not only what’s on the page, but all the company that comes with it. Working with LaMonica is… it’s special. It’s very special,” Elliott explained.

As we’ve seen in the past, Taylor Sheridan isn’t shy about creating spinoffs. More importantly, there’s already an unrelated 1883 spinoff in the works. So, seeing Shea and Thomas in a future series isn’t completely off the table.