Taylor Sheridan has drastically pulled back on the reins on the “Yellowstone” spinoff “6666.”

The creator of the Sheridan TV Universe kicked up dust with the Aug. 17 “Rodeo Time” podcast, saying that the “6666” series around the legendary Texas ranch, for which he’s part-owner, was never even a thing, despite persistent reports.

“There’s never going to be one. I would never fictionalize that ranch,” Sheridan said.  “People thought that that was going to be. But I would never do that.”

In 2021, Paramount Studios announced plans for “6666,” a Texas-based series that Sheridan had already highlighted with extended dramatic visits during his hit series “Yellowstone.” In Season 4 of “Yellowstone,” Jefferson White’s character Jimmy was sent by the Duttons to the legendary Texas ranch to bring his cowboy skills to a new level.

Since then, Sheridan has launched multiple “Yellowstone” spinoffs, including “Dutton Ranch.” But there has been mostly silence on “6666.”

On the podcast, Sheridan acknowledged the Jimmy connection, while sticking in the nail in the coffin on the series.

“I’ve actually got on my computer all the scenes of Jimmy at the 6666 pulled out and strung together, and it makes its own perfect little movie where you watch him go there as this misfit and leave as a man and a respected cowboy,” Sheridan said.

But it would not make a strong series, according to Sheridan.

“If I was gonna try and make some kind of show about 6666, now I’m making up lives, now I have to invent a drama,” he said. “We can’t just watch some kid learn how to rope every episode. So now I’m trivializing and fictionalizing something where real people work, and they raise their families there. I could never do that to the cowboys who dedicated themselves on that ranch.”

“I’m very protective of the 6666’s, and it’s a big responsibility to anyone who carries that brand,” he added.

From the podcast, you would have thought the entire “6666” series was a journalistic mirage. But the series discussion was real. A 2022 Paramount/101 Studios upfront featured a discussion on the upcoming series.

“Founded when Comanches still ruled West Texas, no ranch in America is more steeped in the history of the West than the 6666,” the official “6666” explanation stated. “Still operating as it did two centuries before, and encompassing an entire county, the 6666 has inspired a new scripted series where the rule of law and the laws of nature merge in a place where the most dangerous thing one does is the next thing. The 6666 is synonymous with the merciless endeavor to raise the finest horses and livestock in the world, and ultimately where world-class cowboys are born and made.”

What is Taylor Sheridan’s connection to the 6666 ranch?

Sheridan’s relationship with the Four Sixes became much more than a TV connection in 2022, when an investment group he led purchased the legendary Texas cattle and horse operation, following the 2020 death of longtime owner Anne Windfohr Marion.

Founded by Capt. Samuel “Burk” Burnett in 1870, the sprawling ranch comprises three properties totaling about 266,000 acres and had remained in the Burnett family for generations.

What other Sheridan series are on the rise?

In his TV universe, Sheridan has completed the first season of “Dutton Ranch,” which had its Paramount+ finale in July.

“Lioness” is blowing up in Season 3 with Zoe Saldana and Nicole Kidman.

The upcoming Season 3 of “Tulsa King” with Sylvester Stallone starts in October. A spinoff of that series, “Frisco King” with Samuel L. Jackson, kicks up later this year.