American Primeval's Success Should Be A Wake-Up Call For Netflix To Compete With Taylor Sheridan's Western TV Show Empire, Because It's Proved It Can

Netflix has created its own budding Western franchise with American Primeval, which could finally be an answer to Taylor Sheridan's wealth of original series on Paramount+. Since it premiered on Netflix on January 9, 2025, American Primeval has remained one of the top original series on the streaming platform in the new year. Peter Berg, the celebrated creator of Friday Night Lights and director of Mark Wahlberg action epics such as Patriots Day and Deepwater Horizon, created American Primeval using extensive research. Like Sheridan in Yellowstone, 1883, and Lioness, Berg also appears in a small role in his Western series.

Before the revolutionary boom of Yellowstone that led to a Western streaming empire, Sheridan mostly wrote screenplays for feature films such as Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River. In the same vein, Berg was primarily a movie director and screenwriter before leaning back into television in recent years with Showtime's Boys in Blue and Netflix's Painkiller in 2023. Given the success of American Primeval, Netflix and Berg should team up in a Sheridan and Paramount type of dynamic, allowing Netflix to build on the promise of the gritty and ruthless 6-episode Western series that could become a franchise.

Netflix Has Made A Lot Of Great Modern Westerns

Godless, The Power of the Dog & American Primeval

Netflix has produced its fair share of original Western films and series, some of which have even won Emmys and Oscars. Godless is often considered one of the best modern Western series ever made and is arguably the best Western show on Netflix. The Power of the Dog, which earned 12 Academy Award nominations, including a Best Director win for Jane Campion, is another gripping Western distributed by Netflix. Joel and Ethan Coen's Western comedy The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is also worth mentioning. Nominated for 3 Oscars, the anthology film tells six stories on the Old West American frontier.

While Godless, The Power of the Dog, and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs are standalone projects, the addition of American Primeval greatly strengthens Netflix's arsenal of original Westerns. It's unlikely that Campion or the Coen Brothers would spearhead a modern Western renaissance on Netflix.

One can imagine that Scott Frank, who wrote Logan and created another celebrated Netflix series, The Queen's Gambit, wants to keep his options open. Berg, however, has a track record for sticking to content that consistently works, directing Walhberg in five action films in seven years. This makes him a prime candidate to spark a Netflix Western franchise.

Netflix Hasn't Topped Taylor Sheridan's Western TV Shows As A Whole

Berg Is A Great Candidate to Spearhead A Netflix Western Universe

Despite having a lot of good Westerns, Netflix's current slate of Western projects consists of mostly standalone movies or miniseries rather than returning shows that can become big franchises. They've proved they can make Westerns as good as Sheridan, if not better, just not in a long-running series or franchise approach. Netflix has a reputation for canceling shows in their prime or before they have a chance to find their footing. This suggests that Netflix isn't even interested in building their own Sheridan-level Western universe. If they were, however, all signs point to an American Primeval anthological expansion.

American Primeval is a very different type of Western series than Yellowstone or anything else in the Sheridan universe, even 1883 and 1923. Berg's approach to American Primeval with The Revenant screenwriter and series creator Mark L. Smith is more extreme and visceral than anything in Sheridan's current wheelhouse. This gives Netflix a unique edge over Sheridan's content, which is rooted in classic TV sensibilities like Dallas. Some have called Yellowstone a soap opera, whereas American Primeval is an exhibition of brutality and violence. This creates a harrowing yet realistic Old West atmosphere that wouldn't work as a Sheridan show.

Could American Primeval Be Netflix's Western Franchise?

Netflix Could Choose To Create More Standalone Westerns Instead

Netflix and Paramount+ are quite different in scope and scale, which makes it much more difficult to predict what will be renewed at Netflix, even for a hit series like American Primeval. While there's currently speculation of an American Primeval prequel series, nothing has been confirmed by Berg, Smith, or Netflix. Considering the ending of American Primeval, several main characters will not be able to return, making a direct sequel series less likely than a spinoff or an anthological expansion.

An American Primeval season 2 or spinoff is entirely possible and would be something to root for. Berg would likely be open to it with or without Smith, meaning a renewal would theoretically come down to Netflix's bottom line regarding viewership, projections, and more data analysis that fan support.

Alternatively, Netflix could use the success of American Primeval to create more original Western standalone projects rather than use the miniseries as a foundation for a franchise. Sheridan has a firm home at Paramount, while Netflix may be less accommodating.