Sylvester Stallone’s Tulsa King Flips a Key Detail Ahead of Season 4

Tulsa King just pulled a big behind-the-scenes lever right before cameras were set to roll on Season 4. Twenty-six crew members were told not to come back and were swapped out days ahead of production, including Sylvester Stallone's longtime stunt double. The timing is... notable, landing alongside fresh chatter about Taylor Sheridan and Paramount. Here is what actually changed and what it might mean for the show.

What changed, and how big is this?

According to Deadline, out of roughly 600 crew, 26 people were removed and replaced across multiple departments on Tulsa King Season 4. That is a lot for a returning series, especially this close to shoot.

• Departments hit: sound, camera operations, rigging, stunts, transportation, extras casting, the production office, hair, and photography
• Among those cut: Freddie Poole, Stallone's stunt double for more than 14 years, who says he was told two weeks before shooting and that the reason given was 'creative reasons'
• Poole on the shake-up:

'I feel really bad for the Atlanta film community with just the way things went down. I have been in this business for 30 years and I have been on shows for multiple seasons, and I have never seen this kind of turnover.'

Another veteran on the show — Stallone's stand-in for the first three seasons — reportedly learned from someone else that his job had been reposted. The abrupt nature of the swap is what stings. Many on the crew believed they had two more years of work lined up after Stallone signed a renewal in 2024.

Wait, why now?

Deadline frames the cuts as part of a larger reset while the show gears up for its fourth season. The optics are hard to ignore: it's happening while headlines keep swirling about Taylor Sheridan and Paramount. No one is saying the two things are directly linked, but the timing raises eyebrows.

Who is steering the ship?

There is also a creative change up top. Terence Winter, who ran Season 1 before stepping away over differences, is back as executive producer and head writer (again, via Deadline). Dave Erickson — who steered Season 3 — is exiting. Translation: expect the show to lean back toward the Season 1 voice.

Does this mess with Season 4?

Swapping out key crew days before production is never clean. Even if the replacements are great, there is a ramp-up: workflows to learn, tone to match, and a lot of logistics to absorb fast. You might feel a little wobble on screen — continuity, rhythm, the 'why does this feel slightly different?' stuff — especially early in the season. Hopefully it evens out quickly.

Quick refresher on the show

Tulsa King has three seasons and 29 episodes so far, created by Taylor Sheridan. Terence Winter and Dave Erickson have served as showrunners at different points. The cast is led by Sylvester Stallone with Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Jay Will, Max Casella, and others. The show has scored well with critics and audiences (Rotten Tomatoes: 88% critic, 76% audience; IMDb: 7.9/10) and, frankly, it is the rare TV gamble that turned Stallone into a weekly streaming lead — and it worked.

Bottom line

This is a major midstream shake-up, the kind you almost never see right before a new season on a hit series. The creative reset with Winter returning could be a net positive, but the crew turnover this late is a variable you feel. Will you keep watching if Season 4 comes in a little out of sync at first? I will — at least to see where the new-old voice takes it.

Tulsa King is streaming on Paramount+ in the U.S.