Tulsa King, the hit Paramount Plus series from creators Taylor Sheridan and Terence Winter, returns for its second season on September 15.Sylvester Stallone starsas Dwight Manfredi, a New York mobster who is effectively put out to pasture in Tulsa, Oklahoma after serving a 25-year prison sentence. Over the course of Season 1, Dwight establishes a foothold in Tulsa, assembles a ragtag Mafia family of his own, takes on the local biker gang, and emancipates himself from his New York roots, all while trying to reconnect with his estranged family. InTulsa Kingseason 2, he’ll go up against his former New York allies, as well as the Kansas City Mafia, who don’t take too kindly to an East Coast interloper doing business on their turf.
Season 2 ofTulsa Kingsees the return of the main cast in front of the camera, as well as the head writer behind the scenes. Winter is no stranger to gangster stories, having been instrumental in the success ofsuch legendary series asThe SopranosandBoardwalk Empire.Tulsa Kingfits snugly alongside those shows, offering a mix of humor, drama, and tough-guy action, all anchored by the palpable charisma of Sylvester Stallone.
Tulsa King Recap: 10 Things To Remember Before Season 2
A lot happened in Tulsa King season 1, but there are 10 things that will be especially important to remember before Tulsa King season 2 comes out.
In anticipation of the September 15 debut ofTulsa King’ssophomore season,Screen Rantinterviewed showrunner Terence Winter about his work onthe Taylor Sheridan series. He talks about some of the lore behind the Manfredi family, including his relationship with his late brother, an off-screen character whose death brings Dwight back to NYC early in the first season. He also talks about the audience’s fascination with gangsters, and confronts the question everybody is asking: where is Badface?
Terence Winter On The Secret Family Lore Of Tulsa King
“Dwight’s efforts to repair his broken family certainly continue through season 2.”
Screen Rant: I watched season one in two days, and I was heartbroken that I only got season two’s premiere, only the first episode. I was like, “I need more! I’m hooked!”
Terence Winter: I love hearing that.
Before we start, I have a special connection to your work that I have to share. I live in Kelly McDonald’s house from Boardwalk Empire, out in Far Rockaway.
Terence Winter: Oh, my God, no way! You live in that house in Far Rockaway? Wow. That is crazy. I remember the big production challenge of shooting that house. We had to make the street look like it was a dirt road. I don’t remember how we ended up doing it. Maybe we did it in CGI or whatever. But wow, that’s amazing. What a what a small world. I spent a lot of time out there. I grew up in Brooklyn, so I spent a lot of time in the Rockaways. You’re making me making me homesick!
Yeah, you’re stuck in L.A., I suppose?
Terence Winter: Yeah. We’ve been back here for seven years now, and probably for a few more years. Once the kids are in college, we can go back to New York.
I’ve got some questions about like about the new season, about the first season, about the lore of the show. But the first one I want to ask is a little personal, about Joe, who we never actually see on the show, but he’s Dwight’s late brother. They show an MTA sweater. Was he a bus driver?
Terence Winter: He was a token clerk. He worked in a token booth. Yeah. His nickname was Token Joe. In the New York subway, when you used to buy tokens, when that was a thing, that was his career.
Maybe you can’t say it, but are we going to get flashbacks to them maybe having that dissonance between being a Working Joe and a gangster?
Terence Winter: I can’t give any any specifics in terms of that, but what I can say is, Dwight’s efforts to repair his broken family certainly continue through season two. Dwight is a guy who, you know, for twenty five years, kind of abandoned his family. More as a way of, as he said, psychologically protecting them, but it was really probably more about him. And now he’s trying to make up for lost time. He’s trying to repair the broken relationship with his estranged sister, and certainly his daughter and grandchildren. So, throughout the course of that, we’ll get more insight into what the early days of that family was like.
My father was a bus driver, that’s why I asked. When I saw that the uniform, I was like, oh…
Terence Winter: He was Ralph Kramden!
Bro, you don’t even know. I mean, he was he was a really hefty guy and quick to rage-filled outbursts, but he was pretty great!
Terence Winter On Why Stallone Is Perfect In Tulsa King
“I think Dwight, in a different time and place, would have grown up to be a businessman.”
So, let’s talk about Stallone, who plays Dwight. He’s the level of star where, no matter who he’s playing, there’s that instinct to call him Stallone. But… You can correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t sense the vanity that you might expect from someone of his caliber, you know what I mean?
Terence Winter: Right.
But I also feel like the show is kind of, to an extent, shaped by his sensibilities, too.
Terence Winter: Yeah, you’re absolutely right. I mean, the real person is incredibly warm. He’s self-deprecating. He’s really funny. He’s really smart. He’s incredibly well-read. Not unlike Dwight. I think one of the best compliments I got from him ever was when he read my pilot. He said, “This fits me like a tailor-made suit. This is me if I were a mob boss. This is exactly how I speak. This is perfect. This is an opportunity for me to show the world who I am.” You know, Rocky is not the brightest guy in the world, he’s very charming and sweet. But he’s not exactly a scholar. And Rambo basically didn’t say anything. Stallone said, “I finally get a chance to talk and do monologues and show people that I can not only do this, but I think it’ll be really surprising for people see me in a different light.” I think, for him, it was a real breath of fresh air to finally get to stretch those muscles.
I feel like Dwight is not a Tony Soprano-level sociopath. Maybe it has to do with his relationship with his family, but he aims to legitimize himself and the choices that he’s made. Tony Soprano and Nucky Thompson and Dwight Manfredi are all tough dudes, but can you talk about what went into making Dwight not conform to the characters you’ve worked on before?
Terence Winter: I think Dwight, at heart, is a rational, reasonable guy. He’s not a bully. I mean, a lot of mob guys in real life are bulls in china shops. I think Dwight in general, will be respectful to people until he feels that they don’t deserve that, and then the other shoe drops. He’s thoughtful in the sense that he actually thinks about the world. He’s had plenty of time in prison to reflect on his choices. And he’s incredibly well read. He has a much broader base of knowledge about the world than most gangsters. As you say, Tony was more, you know, more thuggish, perhaps. I think Dwight, in a different time and place, would have grown up to be a businessman. Like a lot of New Yorkers, maybe he’d still be a little rough around the edges, but not quite a gangster.
I think that’s what makes him different. He’s got a sense of humor. He’s basically a good guy. He really does want to go straight, but he’s got very limited conflict resolution skills and also very limited business skills. But he is trying. And sometimes, you know, he makes the wrong choices and then causes more problems for himself. And then it’s sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy that things are not going to go well.
Kinda building on his character, I have another lore question for you. The guy in the burning building, I can’t remember the character’s name, but the guy Dwight kills in an act of mercy, and goes to prison for killing him, was he the first guy that Dwight ever killed or is he just the one that he got caught for?
Terence Winter: Well… You know, in the history of the show, he was the first guy that Dwight killed. Whether or not that’s true, I don’t know. (Laughs) The answer is kind of both. It’s certainly the first one he got arrested for. And then he killed another guy in self-defense in prison. Those are the only two things on his record. But whether or not Dwight has ever killed anybody else, you’d have to ask him. He won’t even tell me!
There’s like things that I don’t understand in the world and about ourselves and our humanity. One is just the idea of rooting for gangsters. Another one is just like, well, how does Dana Delaney get more beautiful as she gets older? Like, I don’t know how that works. But it works.
Terence Winter: Those are the two big questions in life! For the second one you’d have to ask Dana, but you’re absolutely right. She’s a lovely woman. In terms of the gangster thing, I feel like, when you paint anybody in all of their colors as a human being, you’re going to find moments of relatability and empathy. Nobody’s all one thing. Nobody’s all bad or all good. There’s moments where you’re like, “Oh my God, this guy loves his dog, but he’s a bank robber.” Or you go, “he loves his kids,” you know, or “he’s funny,” or “he helped me out once.” And you go, well, shit, now I have to rethink this as he’s not all bad.
I think that’s who Dwight is, too. You meet this guy and you’re like, yeah, he’s a, he’s a thug. But on the other hand, there’s a decency about him, too. So it gets complicated. I met a lot of these guys in real life. It’s the same thing where, objectively, they’re not good people, but then again, there are moments of humanity where you go, “all right, well, there is that.” You know? So I think that makes it complicated for the audience sometimes. You’re like, wait, why am I rooting for this guy? But you see a little bit of yourself in there. I think, too, with Dwight, with somebody like that, when you drop them into a situation…
You and I go to the DMV and it’s this incredibly frustrating experience. You watch a mob boss do that. He’s not immune to the same bullshit that we have to go through! And you’re like, just watch him now have to deal with this, the unreasonable nonsense that you have to do. Or watch him try to order coffee at Starbucks or figure out the insanity of the world. It’s funny! You go, “Oh wow, he feels the same way I do about these things. He’s subjected to the same things and it kind of makes him more relatable and more human.”
The Incredible Supporting Cast Of Tulsa King Deserves Plenty Of Praise
“Across the board, we’ve got this phenomenal roster, a very deep bench. There’s nothing these people can’t do.”
Stallone, his name’s on the show, but you’ve got an incredible supporting cast. We mentioned Dana Delaney, who is, you know, tremendously talented. Max Casella, I love him, and he gets to play a really unique character that I don’t know we’ve ever really seen before.
Terence Winter: I’ve always said Max is my secret weapon. I’ve worked with him many times and I hope to work with him many times in the future. He’s phenomenal. Domenick Lombardozzi, Chris Caldovino, Vinny Piazza, Garrett Hedlund, Jay Will, Martin Starr. I mean, just across the board, we’ve got this phenomenal roster, a very deep bench. There’s nothing these people can’t do, or won’t do. And that’s part of the fun of season 2 is.
Now that we’ve gotten to know all these characters and we’ve set the table, now you get to know them more and they can expand. Now we can put them in situations that are filled with conflict and emotion. The other thing too is, sometimes there’s this alchemy where you put two characters together in combinations you’ve never really seen before and you go, “Oh my God, this is great. We got to see more of this!” You know, throw Max Casella and Jay Will together. You’re like, “Wow, these guys are hilarious together.” That’s something to look forward to in season two, which I’m really happy with and proud of.
I gotta say, I love Domenick. He’s one of my favorite actors, going back to… I think Miami Vice was the first thing I saw him in. But the first couple of episodes, I honestly didn’t recognize him because I’d never seen him with hair before!
Terence Winter: He had that bad toupee, and I knew where that was going. Obviously, at that the end of the season is when you’re going to see that he’s wearing a toupee and people in the audience were like, “Why? His hair looks awful, that’s the fakest looking toupee!” I was like, “Just wait. It’s supposed to be, we know that.”
Gotta have that Gene Hackman Lex Luthor moment where he finally rips it off.
Terence Winter: Yeah, exactly. He’s our Lex Luthor.
Last question. America needs to know. Where’d Badface go? Where’s Badface? Is he coming back?
Terence Winter: No, he’s in jail. I think we alluded to…
You alluded to him being away.
Terence Winter: Yeah, he unfortunately got arrested and he’s in jail. He may or may not show up. You never know. People do get out of jail. But I can’t say or promise anything. But at the moment he is incarcerated. Not the actor! Just the character.
Okay. So there’s no bad blood with the actor.
Terence Winter: No, not at all. Not even remotely, no, he was great!
I was like, oh, Badface would have had such a great time at the bar shooting everybody in the finale.
Terence Winter: Yeah, absolutely!
More About Tulsa King Season 2
In season 2, Dwight (Stallone) and his crew continue to build up and defend their growing empire in Tulsa, but just as they get their bearings, they realize that they’re not the only ones who want to stake their claim. With looming threats from the Kansas City mob and a very powerful local businessman, Dwight struggles to keep his family and crew safe while keeping track of all his affairs. Plus, he still has unfinished business back in New York.
Tulsa King
Cast
Tulsa King follows New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi, who, after 25 years in prison, is exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, by his boss. Faced with the possibility of betrayal, he assembles a crew of unlikely characters to establish a criminal empire in unfamiliar territory.
