Deep in the heart of Texas, you might think of cowboys, cattle and rodeos. But Husbandmanthe new series co-created by Christian Wallace and Yellowstone boss Taylor Sheridan wants viewers to think about Texas tea and black gold too with the new oil trading streaming offering starring Billy Bob Thornton.

Based on that of journalist-screenwriter Wallace Boomtown podcast, from Imperative Entertainment and Texas Monthlythe Paramount+ series explores West Texas’ multibillion-dollar oil industry in a storytelling style likely to remind viewers of Sheridan’s megahit Paramount Network saga Yellowstone. The podcast focused on the Permian Basin in West Texas in 2019.

Although the oil fields known as “the patch” produced a significant amount of product and paid the lowest workers in the fields hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, the West Texas community also faced high rents, overcrowded schools and some of the deadliest job anyone could do. Death was – and is – a common occurrence for those who trained in the patch.

In a recent conversation with The Hollywood ReporterThornton explained where his character fits in. He plays Tommy Norris, an executive and “fixer” for the fictional oil company in the series, which is owned by his billionaire boss Monty Miller (Jon Hamm).

“Yes, that’s basically it,” said Thornton, who agreed that his character was a fixer. “A husbandman is someone who arranges the leases for the land and then supervises the crews that work on it. And he is also responsible for making money for his boss, who owns the oil company; so ‘fixer’ is a good way to put it. It’s a big job. It comes with a lot of responsibility. A lot of driving in your truck. A lot of people go to oil fields. Many of your meetings with your boss are in his mansion. A glorified foreman in many ways.”

An interesting aspect of Thornton’s character is discovered in the first scene of the first episode, when Norris is taken hostage in a shed in the middle of nowhere, chained to a chair with a hood over his face. It’s clear he was beaten. As the scene plays out, viewers discover that Norris is there to negotiate land rights with a cartel that wants to transport drugs via private roads that pass through valuable oil fields. The dealings between cartels and oil companies surprised Thornton somewhat, but he discovered that such situations are not so far-fetched.

“Tommy has to deal with a lot of different people who work close to each other,” Thornton explains. “Livestock farmers have their thing. Oilmen have their thing, but that’s probably an easier relationship because it’s just a business thing, where you work it out a little bit, and you might not always agree.

He continued: ‘But with the cartel it’s a different story, because there is danger involved. One of the things I didn’t know before I started working on this – I knew some things about the oil business – was that I didn’t realize how these cartels will sometimes use that land. They almost seem like strange bedfellows. It’s like, ‘We’re sharing this. I’m not big in your world; you’re not too fond of mine. So, okay, go ahead and do your thing. But stay out of our way and we’ll stay out of yours.’”

Wallace, co-creator of Husbandmandoesn’t believe his story is necessarily an extension of Yellowstonebut he does see it as part of the Sheridan verse of storytelling. YellowstoneTV’s #1 series, also currently rolling out season 5B on Sundays, which was announced to be the finale of the flagship series; although there are talks of a possible sixth season and several spin-offs are in production.

“I watched the last season (of Yellowstone), but I do think it works well in his world,” Wallace shared THR about Husbandman. “I think it’s different from that story, but also in line with (that universe). It makes sense in this world that (Taylor) has created.

Naturally, Husbandman started with Wallace’s podcast, and then it took several years for production to get going, he explained.

“Taylor and his production partners acquired the rights sometime in late 2020,” Wallace said of the 2019 podcast. “Then I talked to Taylor about it for two years, about the story and the characters; two strikes and a pandemic later, and all this other stuff. And here we are, five years later, having this conversation about it Husbandman.”

Together with Thornton and Hamm, Landmans The cast also includes Demi Moore, Ali Larter, Michelle Randolph and Jacob Lofland, and Andy Garcia and Michael Peña will guest star.

“The very first domino in this whole thing, which Taylor knew from the beginning, was that he wanted Billy Bob to be Tommy Norris, our main character,” Wallace said. “Everything came from that. The casting was nice, it’s quite an ensemble.”

Thornton recently spoke about how Sheridan gave him the pitch Husbandman project after his cameo in Geelstona precursor 1883. He told it THR rather that they kept in touch and that when he attended the show’s premiere, they went to dinner afterwards where Sheridan told him, “I’m writing a show for you called Husbandman. I’m going to write it in your voice and it’s the world of the oil industry, and this is the kind of character it is.’ And when I read the first script, I thought, ‘Boy, he wrote it in my voice, didn’t he!’ (Laughs)”

Although there have been no discussions beyond this season, Thornton now says he sees no reason why the series won’t have a long life.

“Initially we were just talking about this season,” Thornton said. “But the idea behind it is that it would be open-ended, that was the possibility. And hopefully that is the case. We’ll see.”

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Husbandman releases new episodes on Sundays on Paramount+.

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