Sylvester Stallone’s Dwight “The General” Manfredi will make his network television bow in July.
The first season of Stallone’s hit Paramount+ series “Tulsa King,” which was filmed primarily in Oklahoma, will make its broadcast debut at 7p.m. Sunday, July 14 on CBS.
The broadcast premiere for “Tulsa King” is the most recent example of Paramount Global’s strategy to bring Paramount+ originals to new audiences on its linear platforms.
It’s also another example of Paramount leveraging its shows created by “Yellowstone” mastermind Taylor Sheridan. In the midst of and on the heels of last year’s Hollywood strikes, CBS aired the first two seasons of “Yellowstone,” Sheridan’s flagship series.
The streaming series will debut on CBS ahead of “Tulsa King” Season 2 launching this fall exclusively on Paramount+, according to a news release.
Although “Tulsa King” Season 2 is primarily filming in the Atlanta area, a small amount of filming for the show’s sophomore season is taking place in the Sooner State, according to the Oklahoma Film + Music Office.
What is ‘Tulsa King’ about and who has been added to the cast for Season 2?
Also listed among the executive producers, Stallone stars in “Tulsa King” as Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a 75-year-old New York gangster newly released after serving a 25-year prison sentence. He is quickly banished by his former boss’ son to Tulsa, where he sets out to establish a new criminal empire in a strange new land.
“Tulsa King” also stars Andrea Savage (“I’m Sorry”), Martin Starr (“Silicon Valley”), Max Casella (“The Tender Bar”), Domenick Lombardozzi (“The Irishman”), Vincent Piazza (“Boardwalk Empire”), Jay Will (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), A.C. Peterson (“Superman & Lois”), with Garrett Hedlund (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”) and Dana Delany (“Body of Proof”).
The series is adding more star power for its second season: Deadline reports that Marvel Cinematic Universe player Frank Grillo has joined the show in the role of Bill Bevilaqua, a Kansas City mobster with interests in Tulsa.
“Yellowstone” actor Neal McDonough also has been added to this season’s cast as Cal Thresher, a powerful and territorial Tulsa businessman, according to Variety.
Where did ‘Tulsa King’ Season 1 film in Oklahoma?
With its first season filmed primarily in the Sooner State, “Tulsa King” — Stallone’s first lead role in a television series and first collaboration with Sheridan — premiered on Paramount+ in November 2022, just 18 months after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed into law a new $30 million tax incentive for TV and film productions.
So far, the Stallone vehicle is the largest scripted television series to be produced in Oklahoma using the incentives under the Filmed in Oklahoma Act of 2021.
The starry show also is believed to be the largest scripted TV series ever made in Oklahoma, bringing an estimated spend of more than $56 million to the state.
Filming for the first season of the Emmy-nominated series largely took place in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Bethany and the surrounding areas over the course of nearly six months in 2022. The show’s production was based primarily at downtown OKC’s Prairie Surf Studios.
The series’ debut season was an immediate hit: Just days after “Tulsa King’s” Nov. 13, 2022, bow, Tanya Giles, chief programming officer for Paramount Streaming, announced that Paramount+ had achieved the most subscriber sign-ups in a single day since the previous year’s relaunch of the streamer. She attributed the success to “Tulsa King” and continued year-over-year growth of the “NFL on CBS.”
“Tulsa King” continues to be one of the most-watched series of all-time for Paramount+, according to the news release. It ranks second only behind the “Yellowstone” prequel “1923.” “Yellowstone,” Sheridan’s most popular series, airs on the Paramount Network and streams on Peacock.
Where is production headquartered for ‘Tulsa King’ Season 2?
During its freshman run “Tulsa King” earned a speedy renewal for a second season, but that didn’t guarantee the production would return to the Sooner State to film its sophomore run.
The Oklahoma Film + Music Office as well as Prairie Surf Studios confirmed to The Oklahoman last year that “Tulsa King” was not expected to return to Oklahoma to film Season 2.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported earlier this year that the production was moving to Georgia. Filming is based at Eagle Rock Studios in the Atlanta suburb of Norcross, with production scheduled from April 1 to July 31.
“Though the production is not using the state incentive due to the limited amount of filming the series is locally conducting, we can confirm a small segment of the second season of ‘Tulsa King’ will be lensed in Oklahoma,” Oklahoma Film + Music Office Director Jeanette Stanton told The Oklahoman.
“Our office will assist the production with any support we can provide, and we are grateful to our local partners for their continued efforts and collaboration.”
According to Georgia Entertainment, executives “noted Oklahoma’s wild weather patterns,” but the primary reason for relocating the production was financial — the Peach State’s billion-dollar film tax credit doesn’t have an annual cap, while the Sooner State film incentive tops out at $30 million a year — and the Atlanta area “crew being a better match” for the series.
Still, “Tulsa King” has stirred controversy in Georgia: Last month, Stallone was accused of creating a “toxic environment” on the show’s set by making insulting comments about background actors, which allegedly prompted a casting director to quit. “Tulsa King” director Craig Zisk denied that Stallone insulted extras in comments to TMZ, but neither the actor nor Paramount+ have commented on the allegations.