It is not uncommon for Taylor Sheridan projects to share actors, though it is a bit less common when someone is in two shows airing at once. That’s about to happen again, however, and with two shows that already share a cast member.
It’s been announced that Michael Kelly, who plays CIA Deputy Director Byron Westfield in Lioness and appears in nearly every episode, will join Landman season 3. Kelly will be a regular in season 3 and play William Crockett, the head of the largest oil management firm in the world, who “is a titan of industry and everything about him exudes efficiency and money.” This will no doubt create clashes with Billy Bob Thornton’s Tommy Norris and his new startup oil company, which formed at the end of season 2.
What has not been made explicit is whether this will require Kelly to leave Lioness, but that’s a question with a few dimensions. First, Lioness has not yet been renewed for season 4, though its stellar ratings would indicate that is likely, raising the question of if Kelly could do both. However, Landman and Lioness already share an actor who has been doing both for two seasons now each, James Jordan, who plays Two Cups on Lioness and Dale Bradley on Landman. While neither are huge parts relative to the rest of the cast, Bradley has been in 22 episodes of Lioness and 20 episodes of Landman, so he’s busy. It seems likely that Kelly would end up doing both, especially if the shows are on dramatically different schedules, as would seem to be the case.
There’s been a bit of a running joke with Kelly that if you need a brusque government official or corporate titan, he’s the man for the job. Typecast, perhaps (I remember him first doing this in House of Cards all those years ago), but I’ve never seen him do a bad job of it, and I’m curious to see how he’ll take on the role in Landman. I mean, I can guess, but I still want to see him in action there. At least in Lioness he’s a good guy this time.
Lioness and Landman are both big hits for Paramount+, with Landman in particular one of the service’s top productions. It is no great surprise that Taylor Sheridan hits continue to dominate the streaming service, but as with almost all his other series, Sheridan has written every episode of these shows, and he is eventually leaving after taking a deal with NBCUniversal, though that doesn’t start until 2029, luckily for Paramount.
So, we’ll see Kelly soon when Landman returns for season 3, which doesn’t have a premiere date yet but is expected in the second half of 2027.
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