Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Season 4
Summary
- Collider’s Steve Weintraub talks with Mayor of Kingstown’s co-creator Hugh Dillon and star Laura Benanti for the Season 4 finale.
- Benanti discusses how the events of this season have changed her character going into Season 5, and what it was like filming that explosive shootout.
- Dillon discusses continuing to explore the show’s violence and character shifts, and talks about the end goal he and Taylor Sheridan set for the series 15 years ago.
Long before he reigned supreme at Paramount — 15 years, in fact —Taylor Sheridan joined forces with actor Hugh Dillon to collaborate on an idea for a show inspired by Dillon’s real-life experiences in Kingston, Ontario. Now, after four successful seasons of Paramount+’s Mayor of Kingstown, co-creator Dillon tells Collider’s Steve Weintraub, “Taylor and I have an end goal…and we are not there yet.”
Throughout the four seasons, the McLusky family has worked tirelessly and sacrificed so much to keep the peace in Kingstown, Michigan. By Season 4, Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) is surrounded by adversaries, yet his main preoccupation is keeping Kyle (Taylor Handley) safe — which culminates in a cathartic ending in Episode 10, “Belly of the Beast,” though who knows what’s in store for the brothers now? For Laura Benanti‘s series newcomer, Cindy Stephens, her first day on the job was no walk in the park, and only a taste of the “very real and scary” finale shootout, leaving her completely changed in the face of Season 5.
In this interview, Dillon and Benanti discuss character regrets, incredible transformations throughout the season, and the “musicality of the violence” in the show that fascinates the co-creator. Dillon also shares his and Sheridan’s plans for the future of Kingstown, going back 15 years, and his map for future seasons.
Laura Benanti on Cindy’s Season 4 “Wild Arc”
“I don’t think anything can prepare you for what she has to witness and go through and do.”
COLLIDER: I’ve recently finished Season 4, and I definitely think it’s the best one yet. It’s nonstop and brutal. Can you talk about how the events of the season have changed each of your characters?
HUGH DILLON: I found, by the end of Season 3, a week after I came up with that, the ending for Season 4. Taylor Sheridan and I have always worked that way. We always look at what is the endpoint. It’s like writing a song; as soon as you have that riff, you can write the rest around it. So for me, it was, “Oh, I see how it’s ending,” with her character in [Episode] 9, and with what we’re doing in 10, and I didn’t stop. I’m immersed in that world. I’m immersed in telling the stories, andI’m immersed in the musicality of the violence. I just find I am fascinated with the social construct, and I am fascinated with people trying to keep their darkest impulses at bay.
LAURA BENANTI: For me, Cindy comes in, and I don’t think she thinks it’s going to be a walk in the park, but I don’t think anything can prepare you for what she has to witness and go through and do. So we get to see the progression of her, a woman coming in, a single mom trying to give her children a better life, coming not from the greatest life herself, witnessing on her very first day some very hard stuff, and then pushing through. She doesn’t leave. That’s a question that I had in my mind was what does it take for a person to not be like, “Actually, never mind,” after her first day? And then take on tasks beyond her actual job because she feels it’s the right thing to do? And she has contact with Jeremy [Renner] ’s character, so we get to see a wild arc for her — who she begins as, and where she ends up.
Jeremy Renner, Edie Falco, Laura Benanti, and co-creator, showrunner, and actor Hugh Dillon discuss the hit series.
‘Mayor of Kingstown’s Ending Was Set 15 Years Ago
“We are not there yet.”
I definitely have to ask you about the ending of Season 4, which is Merle is killed, and the Colombian kid survives and escapes. Talk a little bit about what you’re thinking for Season 5, because there’s no doubt in my mind there will be a Season 5.
DILLON: We’re on it right now. They tell me, honestly, “don’t talk about it.” But I’m actively doing that right now.
Of course. The show is a huge hit. It’s so good.
DILLON: But also, I told you as soon as Season 3 was done, a week after, I had the shootout in my mind. I pitched Renner, and I go, “This is what we’re doing for it.” So for anybody to think that I’m not thinking about Season 5… It’s fascinating. Again, I’m obsessed with the show. I’m obsessed with the characters. I’m obsessed with every component of it, so I think about it into [Season] 5, into 6. You know what I mean? I see it.Taylor and I have an end goal. That’s what we did 15 years ago: “Okay, it ends here.” And we are not there yet.
Laura, I wanted to ask about the shootout scene in the prison with your character because it’s such a brutal scene. Also, Hugh, do you think that he regrets killing Robert, or do you think he’s just made a path where he just has to stay alive?
DILLON: He’s made a path where he has to stay alive, and there is regret. And I do love the shootout scene because that’s in my [Episode] 9, so she can talk about that.
BENANTI: It was very real to shoot. It was pretty scary, and also awesome.
Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 is available to stream on Paramount+.
- Release Date
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November 14, 2021
- Network
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Paramount+
- Showrunner
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Dave Erickson
- Directors
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Stephen Kay, Guy Ferland, Christoph Schrewe, Clark Johnson, Paul Cameron, Tasha Smith, Taylor Sheridan
- Writers
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James Arcega Tinsley
