Taylor Sheridan’s long-running creative bond with Sam Elliott has taken a new turn with Elliott’s casting in Landman season two, a role that grew from a simple text message.
After his acclaimed performance in 1883, Elliott stepped away from work due to personal and medical challenges. He says Sheridan reached out unexpectedly, adding, “Well, I’m going to put your ass back to work,” a comment Elliott still recalls with surprise and gratitude.
Only months later did he learn Sheridan wanted him to play T.L., the father of Billy Bob Thornton’s oil-world fixer Tommy Norris, giving the longtime friends a chance to reunite on-screen.
Elliott describes T.L. as a man worn down by grief and time, someone who “does nothing but sit and watch the sunset,” carrying decades of unresolved pain after losing his wife to a long emotional withdrawal.
His fractured connection with Tommy becomes the foundation of the season, a relationship Elliott says is layered with hurt but also possibility. “It’s very emotional for me — this part and this full season,” he shares, noting it may be one of the most affecting roles of his career.
Thornton, who has committed to several seasons of the series, embraced Elliott’s arrival, emphasising Sheridan’s cinematic approach and the deepening personal stakes of season two.
He notes that working together again created an immediate rhythm: “Every day is a joy. Every script is, like Sam said, a gift.” Elliott, signed for two years, says he hopes to continue: “I’m thrilled to be back in the Taylor world again.”
Landman season three has already begun streaming on Paramount+, continuing the evolving father-and-son story at the heart of the drama.
