Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River Surges on Netflix, Sequel in Question

Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River Surges on Netflix, Sequel in Question

Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River Gains New Attention as Sequel Demands Group.

The creator of Yellowstone and other hit dramas, Taylor Sheridan is back in the spotlight as his debut films are among the most popular. Wind River, the 2017 crime thriller starring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen, is set to hit Netflix in 2025, reigniting the demand for a proper sequel for the new Western.

Released a year before Sheridan launched Yellowstone, the film stars Renner as a veteran wildlife officer and Olsen as a rogue FBI agent as they investigate the death of a young American woman. What begins as a dark journey through the Wyoming wilderness becomes a tense search for justice, shedding light on the ongoing crisis facing the United States and Native women.

Sheridan has said in past interviews with The Interview that it was inspired by the unsolved cases of missing and murdered Native American women. While the film closed with justice on screen, Sheridan emphasized that the issue was not resolved in real life, which is no longer appropriate.

Although a sequel, titled Wind River: Rising, was filmed in 2023, it is not linked to Sheridan, Reiner, or Olsen going forward. Instead, Mar-Kerry Skoglund is leading the production, with Gil Birmingham reprising his role as Martin Hansen, the original father of the grieving. The cast also includes Jason Clarke, Scott Eastwood, Alan Rickman, and Callie Reiss, but as of September 2025, no official release date has been announced. Birmingham has indicated that the new film leans more towards a traditional procedural, which could explain the stability in distribution.

Wind River has long been Sheridan’s top work. Several of the film’s actors, including Shrek Birmingham, Graham Greene, and Hugh Dillon, would later appear in Lovestone and its prequels. The themes of land, justice, and American conflict also tie the film to Sheridan’s signature storytelling style.

With Sheridan now one of television’s most influential creators, fans and critics alike argue that a true follow-up to Wind River — led by the original team — would honor both films and bring attention to a real crisis in the world.