Tulsa King showrunner Terence Winter steps down ahead of season 2

Veteran TV writer and producer Terence Winter has reportedly stepped down as showrunner from the hit Paramount Plus series, Tulsa King, citing creative differences as the reason for his departure.

However, this does not mark his clean break from the series. Winter remains an executive producer on the show by Taylor Sheridan. He is also focusing on other projects, including a highly secretive streaming series with Martin Scorsese and a limited series about the New York Mets’ historic 1986 run.

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Why is Terence Winter stepping down as Tulsa King's showrunner?

It is no secret that Terence Winter has a lot of creative differences with Sheridan regarding the series. The show was initially Sheridan's vision, and as it proceeds into further seasons, it looks like Winter is unable to come to a middle ground and reconcile his ideas with those of Sheridan. The main clash is over different visions for the show's protagonist.

Winter, who is also attached to popular shows like Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos, had previously revealed how his vision for Tulsa King differed from Sheridan's vision of Sylvester Stallone's character, Dwight Manfredi. In an interview with Deadline, Winter said:

"In his [Sheridan's] version, our character Dwight was a 75-year-old kind of low-level bag man in the mob. He had never been to prison, he didn’t have a family and he got sent out to Kansas City as a reward for a lifetime of service. When I took it over, I really felt like I wanted to explore the idea of a 75-year-old man in the twilight of his years who’s only got a limited amount of time left, who wants to make something of his life."

Winter added that he wanted Dwight to be a character who was expecting rewards for spending the last 25 years in prison. He continued:

"Instead he gets sent by the boss’ son to Tulsa. Of course this is a huge conflict, because he obviously gave up everything for this life, including becoming estranged from his daughter. So I just layered it with things that I felt were gonna lend itself to telling a story over many, many hours."

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About Tulsa King

Tulsa King follows the life of the New York mafia, Dwight “The General” Manfredi, played by Sylvester Stallone. After being released from prison, Dwight sets up his shop in Tulsa, but soon realizes that his mob family does not have his best interests in mind. He then builds his own crew from a group of unlikely characters, with the intention of establishing a new criminal empire in a foreign land where he finds himself stuck.

Apart from Stallone, Tulsa King also stars Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Jay Will, Max Casella, Domenick Lombardozzi, Vincent Piazza, A.C. Peterson, Garrett Hedlund, and Dana Delany.

The series is executive produced by Taylor Sheridan, Terence Winter, Sylvester Stallone, David C. Glasser, Ron Burkle, Bob Yari, David Hutkin, Allen Coulter, and Braden Aftergood. MTV Entertainment Studios and 101 Studios have produced the series.

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Watch this space to know more about Tulsa King season 2. Season 1 is now available on Paramount Plus.