Taylor Sheridan almost landed Jon Bernthal’s signature The Walking Dead role
Taylor Sheridan says he nearly landed a pivotal TV role that launched Jon Bernthal — and reckons missing out was, oddly, a win for them both.
If you ever wondered how Taylor Sheridan went from actor nobody recognised to the chap behind Yellowstone, there’s a proper ‘nearly happened’ story in there involving The Walking Dead—and Jon Bernthal nicking a job out from under him. Sheridan himself has been poking at the memory on a podcast, and it says plenty about what could have been… or, honestly, what probably shouldn’t have been.
The Road Not Taken
Turns out, Sheridan, long before he was orchestrating battles on Montana ranches, was trying to nab the role of Shane in The Walking Dead. That’s the hot-tempered cop who, spoilers, doesn’t exactly make it to the end credits of season two. On Bill Simmons’ podcast, Sheridan spelled it out pretty clearly: he made it a fair way through the audition process, but Bernthal landed the part and the rest is zombie history.
On Bill Simmons’ podcast, Sheridan let slip: "I got pretty far down the road on Walking Dead. Bernthal beat me out on that."
Now, instead of being stuck hitting zombies with a baseball bat, Sheridan pivoted—with a bit of a grudge, but more gratitude in hindsight. He reckons losing out to Jon Bernthal is what shoved him straight into writing and directing. His first writing gig was Sicario in 2015—which, incidentally, also featured Bernthal—then he directed Wind River in 2017, and yes, Bernthal appeared in that as well. Sheridan even gave the bloke a proper ‘thank you’ for, as he puts it, ‘saving him’ from acting. Swings and roundabouts.
Before He Was a Showrunner
Sheridan isn’t just some lucky hack who doodles ranch maps for Yellowstone. He started out as an actor. His most recognisable part was probably Deputy David Hale in Sons of Anarchy (biker cop with a decent haircut). He also popped up as Danny Boyd on Veronica Mars, and later cameoed as Travis Wheatley—yes, that absolutely is his own show, Yellowstone. His CV, if you dig into IMDb, lists other bits like 12 Strong, Hell or High Water, and Special Ops: Lioness.
He rather infamously asked to be killed off Sons of Anarchy—deliberately. In an older interview, Sheridan explained his reasoning for sacking off acting and heading for the writer’s desk. He put it like this:
He once admitted, "Call it pride or ego or integrity, but I just realized I’ve maxed out what I can do as an actor in this industry. So I’m not going to try to do it anymore. And the people who have all the power are the people telling stories, so I’m going to tell my own stories. That’s when I decided that I was going to write."
Since Yellowstone dropped in 2018, it’s been one of the most-watched series going—so you’d have to say the career switch worked out tidy for him. Bernthal, meanwhile, got a ‘career-changing’ break even though his Walking Dead run lasted less than two seasons. In the trade-off, everyone seems to have landed where they were meant to be—Shane bludgeoned by a zombie, Taylor Sheridan bludgeoning streaming charts.