Netflix’s Yellowstone Replacement Adds a High Potential Star for Season 2
Chris is a Senior News Writer for Collider. He can be found in an IMAX screen, with his eyes watering and his ears bleeding for his own pleasure. He joined the news team in 2022 and accidentally fell upwards into a senior position despite his best efforts.
For reasons unknown, he enjoys analyzing box office receipts, giant sharks, and has become known as the go-to man for all things Bosch, Mission: Impossible and Christopher Nolan in Collider’s news division. Recently, he found himself yeehawing along to the Dutton saga on the Yellowstone Ranch.
He is proficient in sarcasm, wit, Photoshop and working unfeasibly long hours. Amongst his passions sit the likes of the history of the Walt Disney Company, the construction of theme parks, steam trains and binge-watching Gilmore Girls with a coffee that is just hot enough to scald him.
His obsession with the Apple TV+ series Silo is the subject of mockery within the Senior News channel, where his feelings about Taylor Sheridan‘s work are enough to make his fellow writers roll their eyes.
Production on Season 2 is currently underway at Netflix Studios in Albuquerque, and Levi sounds like he’ll bring a new kind of energy, being described as a “mountain man” who lives off the land. Created by April Blair and based on Jodi Thomas’s novels, Ransom Canyon follows the intersecting lives and loves of three Texas ranching dynasties in a town where romance and rivalry go hand in hand. Duhamel stars as Staten, a wealthy rancher trying to preserve his family’s land, while Minka Kelly plays Quinn, the town’s schoolteacher and Staten’s complicated love interest.
Is ‘Ransom Canyon’ Worth Seeing?
The series drew inevitable comparisons to Yellowstone when it debuted, thanks to its ranch setting and slow-burn drama, but where Taylor Sheridan’s series leans into political intrigue and generational warfare, Ransom Canyon focuses on romance, heartbreak, and second chances. Season 1 received a lukewarm 45% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes but a much stronger 73% audience score, signaling that the show found its niche with viewers who wanted more emotion than gunfights.
In Season 2, the future of Ransom Canyon itself hangs in the balance. Old rivalries resurface, new families stake their claims, and the town’s secrets begin to unravel — all while new faces arrive to shake up the balance of power. Collider’s review described it as “perfect escapism”, adding that Duhamel was “born to play a cowboy”:
Ransom Canyon is currently streaming on Netflix. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates on Season 2.