Popular TV series Tulsa King is facing turmoil after more than two dozen employees were cut before Season 4. These firings comes amid news that Taylor Sheridan, creator for the Sylvester Stallone-led drama, will be leaving Paramount+ for NBC Universal at the end of the 2028. Season 3 showrunner Dave Erickson has left the show as well. The impact on the Tulsa King behind the scenes has been so substantial that the next season is said to have no formal showrunner and crew members that were laid off are not mincing words about how they learned they were cut.
Tulsa King cuts 26 employees before Season 4
One of the staff members surprisingly cut a few weeks before Tulsa King Season 4 began shooting is Emmy-nominated stunt coordinator Freddie Poole, who has been with Stallone for 14 years.
In an interview with Variety, he criticizes how he and his fellow cast members, who worked in multiple departments including transportation, photography, stunts, rigging, sound, and camera operation, were treated before being laid off by Paramount.
“The manner in which this was done was just unprofessional and unnecessary,” he emphasized. “Some of these people … were told to leave their equipment at the stages [after Season 3], and then told a week before shooting that they don’t have a job. I think it was really disheartening.”
Many of the affected crew members believed that they were not going to be replaced weeks before shooting started for Season 4 since the Emmy-nominated drama was renewed for the next two years, with Stallone securing the deal in 2024.
“I feel really bad for the Atlanta film community with just the way things went down,” he said to Deadline. “I’ve been in this business for 30 years and I’ve been on shows for multiple seasons, and I’ve never seen this kind of turnover.”
Sylvester Stallone’s stand-in, Chad Gregory, learned he lost his job in the show after his friend noticed his position had been posted as an opening elsewhere. The job listing was offering $400 a day when he was previously paid only $250 a day.
“I’m sure there will be some who see this and say I need to stiffen up. That’s fine. You’re entitled to your opinion,” Gregory said. “But I will say this, unless you are out there getting gut punched, I don’t give a flying rip about your opinion.”
Fortunately for Poole, he learned from Scott Stone, an executive in charge of production at 101 Studios, that there wasn’t going to be a showrunner for Season 4 before it began shooting. “That was the writing on the wall for me,” he confessed. “I knew at that point I better start looking out for myself.”
Poole says he was told that he was let go due to “creative reasons” and was offered a different role as a photo double on the show. However, he declined.
Insiders stress that crew turnover is common during production and one insider says that the staff members were not being replaced due to budget cuts.
One possible reason behind the shakeup is the return of Terence Winter as an executive producer and head writer for Season 4. Winter left after Tulsa King’s first season but returned in Season 2 as an executive producer and head writer. Without a showrunner for Season 4, Scott Stone is said to be filling in alongside unit production managers Rebecca Rivo and Christian Agypt. However, none of them are going to be in charge of the writing or directing for the show.
These layoffs at Tulsa King come amid Paramount, under new CEO David Ellison, announcing significant job cuts, with 1,000 workers based in the US being laid off in October in the first round and another 1,000 workers expected to be laid off in the second round.
